Parents, students and high school musicians turned out at a Board of Education meeting Wednesday to criticize the district for financial mismanagement and call for the protection of various programs identified by Superintendent Michele Lawrence in a $3 million package of budget cuts. 

“I am absolutely disgusted with what is going on with the school board and the programs they want to cut from Berkeley High,” said Nancy Bissell, a Berkeley resident. 

Board members, who are scheduled to vote on the $3 million package Feb. 27, and must cut $6 million total to balance next year’s budget, expressed general support for the superintendent’s proposal.  

But members raised questions about a few items and worried aloud that, because they are working on a tight timeline, they will be making cuts next week without complete information about the ramifications. 

Lawrence stood by her plan, but suggested that she might alter a controversial proposal to fold administration of the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project, a special local tax, into the district’s business office. An independent body currently administers the BSEP tax, which yielded about $10 million this year for class size reduction and other initiatives. 

Several BSEP advocates spoke during the meeting, arguing that the current structure works and that BSEP administration is a time-intensive task that could overwhelm Associate Superintendent of Business Jerry Kurr. 

“I do worry that this is a lot of responsibility for Jerry,” said Lawrence, suggesting that she might reconsider her proposal. 

The community speaks 

Marissa Saunders, parent of a fifth-grader at City of Franklin Microsociety Magnet School, attacked Lawrence and members of the board for the proposed closure of the school, which would save the district an estimated $326,000.  

“You’re turning your backs on us,” she said. “My daughter is not for sale. She’s not a budget cut.” 

Three Franklin students also took the podium over the course of the night, and asked the board to keep their school open. 

“I do not want the City of Franklin school to close,” said first-grader MacKinzie Castillo. 

Board members said it would be difficult to close the school, but ultimately signaled their approval of the move. 

Lawrence said if the closure goes through, the district might move an overcrowded Jefferson School into the larger City of Franklin building next year, and convert Jefferson into a new district headquarters.  

The district’s central office is currently located at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in property rented from the city. The lease will expire in several years, and city officials have indicated that they would like to reoccupy the building.  

But the Franklin closure was not the only proposal that stirred controversy. Pam Drew, a math teacher in the district’s Independent Study program, spoke against a plan to eliminate the program’s department head. 

Michael Kelly, co-chair of the Music Curriculum Committee, which advises the board, asked the district to protect the music program. 

Kelly got help from a group of high school musicians who played in the hall outside the board’s hearing room until the meeting began. 

“We just wanted to remind people what (the music program) has done for us, and we’d really prefer that it not get cut at all,” said Gene Fielden, a Berkeley High School senior and viola player. 

Lawrence has called for the elimination of the district’s music and visual arts coordinator position and asked the board to notify all the district’s music teachers that they may be laid off next year.  

By law, the district must notify certain types of teachers and administrators by March 15 if they might be let go next year. Lawrence and school board members said they hope to take back some of those notices, if they can find savings elsewhere, by the end of the year. The superintendent suggested that the district will try to spare music teachers.  

But Selawsky said he was skeptical about Lawrence’s plan to eliminate the coordinator position and relinquish administration of the music program to elementary school principals. 

“We’ve worked that model in the past and it’s been, to my mind, less than ideal,” Selawsky said. 

“This is an area that needs more exploration,” replied Chris Lim, associate superintendent of instruction. 

Barry Fike, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, criticized the administration for failing to seek teachers’ input in making suggestions for programmatic cuts. 

“When educational decisions are made without hearing from those at the forefront of instructional delivery and support, they can't help but be decisions made without critical information,” he said. “A number of the decisions you make will therefore inevitably be misguided.”  

Lawrence has argued that, because the district did not know the extent of its financial woes until January, and faces the statuatory deadline of March 15 for layoffs, it has been forced to act quickly, without as much community input as it would like. 

Board members acknowledged that a hastily-prepared budget, with minimal community input, has left them in the difficult position of making decisions without time for full analysis. But, they suggested that the situation may be unavoidable. 

“I’m very uncomfortable with this whole process, but I realize it comes with the territory,” said board member Terry Doran.  

Editor, 

The McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Bill, now awaiting second and final passage in the U.S. Senate after passing the U.S. House with minor changes last week, is being misrepresented in serious ways by the opponents of campaign reform. 

The most important misrepresentation is this: that the McCain reform would limit the free speech rights of issue organizations like the NRA or the Sierra Club. Not true. 

Let’s imagine that the National Rifle Association wants to oppose the reelection of, say, John McCain. Under existing law dating back to Teddy Roosevelt’s reforms of 1907, they cannot use their own corporate treasury money to run ads against McCain – only individuals can make campaign donations. The NRA can easily circumvent the law by running ads that do not use the magic words “vote for” or “vote against,” instead using thinly-veiled alternatives, such as “ask John McCain why he wants to take away your right to...” It’s called an issue advocacy ad. When an ad slamming a candidate is run right before an election, is it an election ad? You bet it is. 

If it is an election ad, should we voters know who's behind it? Indeed we should, for free speech does not mean anonymous speech. If McCain-Feingold is signed into law, here is what the NRA could still do. They could use their own money to send a letter to all their members. It could say, “we have some candidates we want to support or oppose in the upcoming election. Please make a contribution to our political action committee.” With those donations, the NRA political action committee could run ads for or against any candidates of its choosing. No corporate money would be involved in the ads – only the personal funds of the people contributing to the political action committee. Those names would be a matter of public record as campaign contributors. Everything would be in the open. 

Where is the loss of free speech rights? The only thing lost is the ability of special interest organizations to operate from behind a cloak of secrecy. 

It’s time for thoughtful people to stop listening to the gross representations made by the anti-reformers, left and right, and get on with the business of cleaning up our elections. It’s time for serious journalists to stop casually passing along lies and really reading and explaining the McCain bill, which has passed muster with all the nation’s noted constitutional scholars. Far from damaging our free speech rights, the bill helps to return free speech rights to regular citizens. We the people have had our voices drowned out by special interest money, and the McCain-Feingold bill will help us again be heard. 

Doris “Granny D” Haddock 

Dublin, NH 

The announcement of the Academy Award nominees last week inaugurated the annual film buff’s ritual of arguing who will win which award on March 24. From professional critics to café blowhards, to coworkers around the water cooler, to people who don’t let the fact that they haven’t seen the movies stop them from expressing their opinion about them, they all will spend some part of the Lent season proselytizing about Russell or Sean or Denzel, Halle or Nicole or Renee, “Beautiful Mind” or “Gosford Park” or “Lord of the Rings.” 

Few, if any, will ponder which documentary is most deserving of the award. And for good reason. None of the five nominees for Best Documentary Feature has had any kind of theatrical release (and, for the record, they are: “Children Underground,” “Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy Of Cotton,” “Murder On A Sunday Morning,” “Promises,” and “War Photographer”). Few know what these films are about or what rewards they hold. 

This weekend the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival will partially remedy that. Of the nine features playing at the Pacific Film Archive Friday through Sunday as part of a traveling program, two are Academy Award nominees. 

“Children Underground” (screening Saturday, 8 p.m.) follows a group of orphaned and runaway Romanian children living in a Bucharest train station, Piata Victorei. Ranging in age from 8 to 16 years old, the kids sleep on cardboard, beg for change, bathe by water tap, beat each other up out of fear and desperation, and spend the day high on Aurolac, a kind of paint with addictive chemical fumes that the children huff out of plastic bags. 

Without narration or commentary, filmmaker Edet Belzberg followed five selected children with a video camera. It’s similar to what Berkeley filmmaker Steven Okazaki did in the San Francisco tenderloin in his documentary “Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End Of The Street,” or, the more well-known feature narrative “Kids” by Larry Clark where young people run loose and wild in an primal world of their own, oblivious to the rules and customs of the adult world surrounding them. 

Romania has had an explosion of homeless youth since former President Nicolae Ceaucescu tried to bolster the work force for his communist regime by banning contraceptives and abortion. And estimated 20,000 unwanted children now live on the streets, with paltry social services to help them. 

As we see the shoes of adult commuters walking past sleeping ten-year olds ravaged by filth, Aurolac, and insanity, the film shows us that the streets have an addictive lure that eventually gets under the skin of the kids. The few organizations that offer aide to homeless youth want to help, and the children want to be helped, but the mindset the kids develop to be able to survive on the streets cannot accommodate the rules by which the organizations operate. One director of a residential facility says he cannot accept kids who have been on the streets for more a few months. 

The other Academy Award nominated film in the Human Rights Watch festival, "Promises" (Sunday, 3PM) by local filmmakers Justine Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg and Carlos Bolado, is also centered on children. Seven Isreali and Palestinian children show viewers the Middle East conflict and the careful art of growing up inside it. The film has been picked up for theatrical distribution – opening widely in cinemas yet to be determined – and the filmmakers will be at the PFA in person to speak with the audience after the Sunday afternoon screening. 

The Human Rights Watch is an international non-profit agency dedicated to protecting basic human rights from abuse by governments and regimes around the world. They conduct investigations into suspected abuses with the aim to "embarrass abusive governments in the eyes of their citizens and the world" and advocate intervention. As such, the films in their festival tend to be important – and also bleak, humorless and roughly crafted. 

A third film focusing on children as the end recipients of war and systematic abuse is "Behind Closed Eyes" (Feb 23, 6PM), a multi-part film following four young people from different hot spots around the world: an 18 year-old former Lyberian child soldier must be re-trained before re-entering his village, a refugee from Kosovo lives among a sea of white tents, a one-legged orphan in Cambodia goes away to school, and in Rwanda we see the teenaged mother of a rape baby struggle to raise her child with dignity.  

These children are not as raw as the lawless kids in the Bucharest train station. They are in various stages of rehabilitation and awkwardly try to learn the ways of the adult world. Whether or not this film deserves to be more hopeful, the kids describe their desires for the future and are working toward a stable home. In the case of the Rwandan teenage mother, her vignette in the film has a soundtrack of a radio program featuring women telling of stories and their sorrows, as a kind of social healing. 

Also featured in the festival is the new film by San Francisco filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, a highly regarded documentarian of Latino life whose film "Senorita Extravida: Missing Young Women" just won a jury prize at Sundance.  

"Missing Young Women" (Feb 22, 7PM) goes to Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, a NAFTA boomtown where young women migrate from all over the region to get factory jobs at the American companies that have set up shop there. Since 1994, over 200 young women have been kidnapped or killed, turning up in the sands of the desert outside the city as skeletons wrapped in tatters of clothing.  

Portillo’s film is a gracefully crafted investigation into the mysterious string of murders, and to the inconsistent police response to the crimes. The initial police statements are dismissive, implying it is not unusual by the nature of Ciudad Juarez’s nightlife, then it is suggested the deaths might be a serial killer, or ritual killing. But as the film accumulates police scape-goating, botched evidence, and the victim’s clothing mismatched with their skeletons (identifiable by dental records) the film throws a very suspicious light on the police involvement, possibly even complicity, in the string of grisly killings. 

Music 

924 Gilman Feb. 22: Oppressed Logic, Deface, Edddie Haskells, Throat Oyster; Feb. 23: From Ashes Arise, Artimus Pyle, Brainoil, Down in Flames, Dystrophy, Scholastic Deth; Mar. 1: Street to Nowhere, Thick as Thieves, Calimigo, Scociopath, Samsara, Dead in the End; Mar. 2: Funeral Dinner, Betray the Species, The Shivering, Confidante, The Cause, Get Get Go; Mar. 8: Dead and Gone, Drunk Horse, The Cost, Scurvy Dogs; Mar. 9: Not Flipper, The Sick, Lo-FI Niessans, Stalker Potential, Deficient; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926. 

The Albatross Feb. 23: 9:30 p.m., Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Feb. 26: Mad & Eddie Duran; Feb. 28: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring.com. 

Anna’s Bistro Feb. 22: Fourtet, Hideo Date; Feb. 23: Vicki Burns & Felice York, Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Feb. 24: Christy Dana Jazz Quartet; Feb. 25: Renegade Sidemen w/Calvin Keyes; Feb. 26: Con Alma; Feb. 27: Mainstream Jazz Quintet; Feb. 28: Junebug; Music starts at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Blake’s Feb. 23: Tang; Feb. 24: Famous Last Words; $3; Feb. 25: The Steve Gannon Band, Mz. Dee, $4; Feb. 26: Boomshanka, Rare Form, $3; Feb. 27: Mindz Eye, $5; Feb. 28: Ascension, $5; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cafe Eclectica Feb. 23: 8 p.m., Hip Hop show: Little Larry, with guest MCs and DJs. A teen cafe "for youth, by youth". All ages, $3 w/HS I.D., $5 w/o; 1309 Solano Ave., Albany, 527-2344. 

Cato’s Ale House Feb. 24: Blue and Tan; Feb. 27: Vince Wallace Trio 

Club Jjang-ga Feb. 23: Cheapskate, Eddie Haskels, Resiteleros, Dead Last; 261-1108, savageproductions1@yahoo.com. 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Jupiter Feb. 22: Ben Graves Group; Feb. 23: Brenden Millstein Quartet; Feb. 27: J Steinkoler Duo; Feb. 28: Spectraphonic; All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m., unless noted. 2181 Shattuck Ave., 843-7625, www.jupiterbeer.com. 

The Starry Plough Feb. 22: 9:30 p.m., 20 Minute Loop, Kirby Grips, She Mob, $6; Feb. 23: 9:30 p.m., Eric McFadden Experience, Mark Growden, $6; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

Annie Nalezny, Piano Recital Feb. 3: 3 p.m., Beethoven's Sonatas "A Therese" & "Les Adieux," Bruce Nalezny's "Poeme & Finale" and Chopin's 12 Etudes op. 10. $12-$15 donation. Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste St. 

“Chamber Music Series” Feb. 3: 4 p.m., The Pacific Piano Quartet perform Brahms Piano Quartet in c minor and the Faure Piano Quartet No. 1, also in c minor. $10. Crowden School, 1475 Rose St., 559-6910 x110, jamie@thecrowdenschool.org. 

“Baroque Etcetera” Feb. 3: 7 p.m., Local baroque musicians perform instrumental and vocal works of Bach, Strozzi, Vivaldi, Corelli and Picchi. Church of Saint Mary Magdelen, 2005 Berryman at Milvia, 525-0152. 

“Asylum Street Spankers” Feb. 7: 9:30 p.m., The Spankers; The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082, www.asylumstreetspankers.com. 

Antonio Literes’ “Jupiter Y Semele” Feb. 9: 8 p.m., Feb. 10: 7:30 p.m., Presented by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra with guest conductor Eduardo López Banzo. $34-$49. 415-392-4400, www.philharmonia.org.  

“Larry Schneider Quartet” Feb. 10: 4:30 p.m., Matt Clark, Jeff Chambers and Eddie Marshall. $6-$12. Hardymon Hall/Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St., 845-4373, www.jazzschool.com. 

“Young Talent in a Young Century” Feb. 10: 4 p.m., 15 year old Shoshana Kay will be featured soloist with the Community Women’s Orchestra. Also: Katya Lopez, Rosanne Luu, Tomoko Momlyana and Catarina Sdun. Malcolm X School, 1731 Prince St., 653-1616. 

“The Sex Indie-stry Show” Feb. 14: 9 p.m., The Pre-Teens, Bitesize, Good for You, Shmoogie, and The Clarendon Hills all perform in a benefit for COYOTE, a rights advocacy group for sex workers. $6. The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, www.stjamesinfirmary.org 

“Concherto Night” Feb. 16: 8 p.m., Empyrean Ensemble perform new American and 20th Century works. $14 -$18. Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave., 925-798-1300, www.juliamorgan.org 

“Love is in the Air” Feb. 16: 6 p.m., Oakland Lyric Opera presents an evening of dinner, candlelight and flowers accompanied by a musical showcase of Broadway tunes, Italian street songs and nostalgic cabaret music. $65 including tax and tip. Sequoya Country Club, 4550 Heafey Rd, Oakland, 836-6772 

“Judi Bari Takes on the FBI” Feb. 16: 7:30 p.m., Alice Littletree and Sherry Glaser perform separately in a benefit to raise money for Judi Bari’s suit against the FBI. $5 - $15 sliding scale. Unitarian Fellowship, Cedar & Bonita St., 415-927-1645 

“Bosch Sisters” Feb. 20: 7:30 p.m., Swiss sisters perform piano concert featuring music by Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Debussy and Poulenc. Donations suggested. UC Berkeley International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. 642-9490 

“Free Men! Free Women!” Feb. 22 through Feb. 23: 8 p.m., Wing It performs a new a combination of dance, song and story. $12. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, 814-9584 

“John Glennon and Erika March” Feb. 24: 5 p.m., A program of French music including the works of Francois Couperin, Chambonnieres, and Muffat. $15 - $18. MusicSources, 1000 The Alameda, 528-1685 

“Soukous Xplosion Tour 2002” Mar. 1: 9 p.m. Madilu Systems, Nyboma, Diblo Dibala & Matchatcha and special guest Daly Kimoko will make the sounds of Africa come alive. $25, $30 at door. California Ballroom, 1736 Franklin St., Oakland, 415-421-8497 

“Cosi Fan Tutte” Feb. 22 through Mar. 3: The Berkeley Opera will perform Mozart’s classic opera. $10 - $30. Call for specific dates and times. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 841-103, www.berkeleyopera.com 

“In Praise of Music: Berkeley Choral Festival” Mar. 4: 8 p.m., Several local choral groups will join the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra in a benefit for the Musicians’ Pension Fund. $25 - $49, $12 students. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 841-2800 

“Splendors of Versailles and Madrid” Mar. 9: 8 p.m., Mar. 10: 7:30 p.m., Jordi Savall conducts the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra as they perform works from the Royal Court composers of Spain and France. $34 - $50. First Congregational Church, Dana & Durant, 415-392-4400 

Dance 

Kun Shin Dancers celebrate the artistic traditions of mainland China and Taiwan. Intricate fan and ribbon dances, athletic sword dance, drum duet, courtship piece, peacock dance, and a hoop dance. $8-$10. Calvin Simmons Theatre in the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Ten 10th St., Oakland, 465-9312, www.danceforpower.org.  

“Merce Cunningham Dance Company” Feb. 1 and 2: 8 p.m., The engagment features a world premiere by Cunningham (as yet untitled), with music by Christian Wolff and costumes by Terry Winters. $24-$26. UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall, 642-0212, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. 

“Dance Festival” Feb. 8: 8 p.m., Feb. 9: 8 p.m., East Bay Dance Festival featuring: AXIS Dance Company, Savage Jazz Dance Company, Moving Arts Dance Collective, Dandelion Dancetheater. $15, Students and Seniors $12. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 326-4245, www.katherinedavis.com/ebaydancefestival.htm. 

“Frogz” Feb. 8: 8 p.m, Feb. 9: 2 p.m., 8 p.m., A bevy of balletic frogs, poor-spelling sloths and other curious mischief-making characters roll, leap, and slink around the stage. $18 -$30. Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-0212 

“La Tania” Feb. 14 through Feb. 16, 6 p.m., 7:15 p.m., Acclaimed Flamenco Dancer, La Tania, performs with members of her dance company. $55 dinner included. Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662, www.cafedelapaz.net 

“The Ravel Project and Other Performances” Feb. 15, Feb. 16: 8 p.m., Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre will premiere the Ravel Project on February 15th and perform separate selections on February 16. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-0212 

“Here..Now” Feb. 19 through Feb. 24: Tues. - Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., 8 p.m., Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs three distinct programs featuring the West Coast premiere of “Here...Now”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-0212 

“Kusum Africa” Mar. 1 & 2: 8 p.m., Sixty artists and four dance companies representing the traditions of the Congo, Republic of Guinea, and Ghana adapt sub-Saharan dance-drumming to tell the story of the occupation of Accra, Ghana to protest British colonialism. $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

“Risk of Falling” Mar. 9: 8 p.m., Mar. 10: 4:30 p.m., Julie Drucker has assembled troupe of dancers ages 24 to 83 to perform an intergenerational dance project that weds improvisational movement and personal storytelling to explore issues of trust, fear, aging and community. $12 - $15, $10 seniors. Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito, 286-7922 

“Compania Espanola De Antonio Marquez” Mar. 13 & 14: 8 p.m., Artistic Director Antonio Marquez showcases his dazzling and dynamic program of flamenco. $24 - $36. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9988 

Theater 

Word for Word double bill Feb. 1: 7 p.m., Feb. 2: 5 p.m., Feb. 3: 2 p.m.: Julius Lester’s short children’s play “John Henry”; Zora Neale Hurston’s “The Gilded Six Bits.” Both children and adults will view John Henry together, then the children leave the theatre to participate in art exercises that help them enter the spirit of the play. Meanwhile, the adults remain in the theatre to view The Gilded Six Bits. $16 adults, $11 children. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., 845-8542, www.juliamorgan.com. 

“Unmasked!” Feb. 1: 8 p.m., Feb. 2: 8 p.m., Feb. 3: 5 p.m.: An evening of two short student-directed plays, “The Lesson” by Eugene Ionesco and “Beyond Therapy” by Christopher Durang. $7 adults, $5 students and seniors. Albany High School Little Theather, 603 Key Route Blvd., Albany, 559-6550 x4125, theaterensemble@hotmail.com. 

“James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet” Feb. 5: 8 p.m., Originally conceived as a radio play, John Cage’s imagined conversations between 15 artistic and cultural figures, their dialogue, historical materials, and musings that Cage simply made up. Director Laura Kuhn, Composer Mikel Rouse. UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall, 642-0212, www.calperfs.berkeley.edu. 

Oakland Magic Circle hosts its 34th annual Installation Banquet and Stage show, Feb. 5: 7 p.m. Dinner, 8 p.m. Show, Dick Newton, Timothy James, Peter Winch, Dan X. Solo, $20 Adults, $15 Children; Bjornson Hall, 2258 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, 420-0680. 

“Every Inch a King” Through Feb. 9: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m.; Three sisters have to make a decision as their father approaches death in this comedy presented by the Central Works Theater Ensemble. $8 - $18. LeValls Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. 558-138, www.centralworks.org.  

“The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek” Through Feb. 10: Wed. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 and 7 p.m., playwright Naomi Wallace’s story about Dalton, a 15-year-old who dreams of escaping to college, and Pace, the town’s 17-year-old tomboy. Stuck in a town with no real prospects, the pair begins a deadly contest of chicken with the daily express train. Directed by Søren Oliver. $30-$35. Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org. 

"Human Nature" Feb. 16: 8:30 p.m., X-plicit Players, $15; Art-A-Fact, 1109 Addison St., 848-1985, www.xplicitplayers.com. 

“Sisters” Through Feb. 16: Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., The Prozorov sisters look at the gap between hope and fulfillment in their lives. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattack, www.actorsensemleofbkerkeley.com. 

“Night, Mother” Feb. 8, Feb. 15 - 16, Feb. 22 - 23: 8 p.m., A drama exploring one young woman’s decision to take control of her life with one furious and heartbreaking act. Directed by Bahati Bonner. $12, $8 seniors. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 496-1269 x1950, nightmother@onebox.com 

“The Pirandello Project” through Feb. 23: Check venue for specific dates, times and prices. An original presentation of three short works by the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Luigi Pirandello. Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., 841-4082, www.pirandelloproject.org 

“Culture Clash in AmeriCCA” Through Mar. 3: Check theater for specific dates and times. The comic trio Culture Clash present their latest collection of political, ethnological and socialogical humor written for and about Berkeley. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Rhinoceros” Through Mar. 10: Check theater for specific dates and times. An absurdist tragic-comedy about a small provincial town whose citizens slowly but surely transform into large cumbersome rhinoceroses. Directed by Barbara Damashek. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2976 www.berkeleyrep.org. 

“Divine Comedy: The Dante Project” Mar. 1 through Mar. 10: Fri. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. A motorcycle and sidecar speeding over the Marsh of Styx, a flying bathtub touring the solar system, and a traveler passing through a wall of fire are some of the more spectacular moments in this comic twist on Dante’s poem. $6 - $12. Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-9925, genturc@uclink.berkeley.edu 

“The Golden State” Feb. 23 through Mar. 24: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., An aging Brian Wilson meets the ruling family of the sea, and a blend of comic book escapade and tragedy follows in the wake. $20, Sunday is pay what you can. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave., 883-0305 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland, 239-2252, www.acteva.com/go/havefun. 

“A Fairy’s Tail” Mar. 16 through Apr. 20: Thur. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m. The Shotgun Players present Adam Bock’s story of a girl and her odyssey of revenge and personal transformation after a giant smashes her house with her family inside. $10 - $25. The Allston Street Theatre, 2116 Allston Way, 704-8210, www.shotgunplayers.org 

Film 

Pacific Film Archive Feb: 14: 7 p.m., The Perfumed Garden; Feb: 15: 7 p.m., Rendezvous in Paris, 9:05 p.m., Autumn Tale; Feb. 17: 3 p.m. The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, 5:30 p.m., The Atonement of Gosta Berling; Feb. 19: 7:30 p.m., Prisoners of War; Feb. 20: 3 p.m., The General, 7:30 p.m., Kristin Lucas Simulcast Town Meeting; Feb. 21: 7:30 p.m., Kristin Lucas Workshop; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412. 

“Human Rights International Film Festival” Feb. 22 through Feb. 24: Nine provocative films will be shown, many followed by question and answer sessions with local and visiting filmmakers. Check theater for films and times. Pacific Film Archive, 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412  

Exhibits  

“Rhythms” Through Feb. 2: Art installation of sculpture, neon, music and video projections by Kati Casida; Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St., 845-5373 

Pro Arts: “Juried Annual 2001-02” Through Feb. 2: Exhibition of painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography and more by Bay Area and regional artists; Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., www.proartsgallery.org. 

“All Grown Up” Through Feb. 2: New paintings and drawings by Amy Chan. Thurs. 1 p.m. - 8 p.m., Fri -Sun 1 p.m. -6 p.m., 21 Grand Ave., Oakland, 444-7263. 

“Water Media” Through Feb. 8: An exhibit by Christine “Caipirinha” Mulder. Capoeira Arts Cafe Gallery, 2026 Center St., 666-1349 for hours. 

“New Work by Dennis Begg and Steve Briscoe” Through Feb. 9: Dennis Begg’s sculpture. Steve Brisco’s paintings. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery,1316 10th St., 527-1214. 

“Enduring Wisdom: Artwork and Stories by Homeless and Formerly Homeless Seniors” Through Feb. 15: 18 homeless and formerly homeless elders reveal how they learned and applied wisdom that is timeless. Mon. - Fri. and Sundays 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.; Free. St. Mary’s Center, 635 22nd St., Oakland, 893-4723 x222. 

“Envisioning Ecology” Through Feb. 15: Paintings by Michelle Waters. Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., 548-2220 x233. 

“The Other 364 Days: A Day in the Life of the Queer Community” Through Feb. 16: An exhibit of black and white photographs by East Bay photographer Limor Inbar-Hansen. Mon. - Fri., 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Sat., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644-1400, limor@indelible-images.com. 

“Adventures in La Land” Through Feb. 23: Installations by Suzanne Husky and Paintings by Amy Morrell. Tues. - Sat., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; 4920 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, 428-2349. 

“Transformations: Through the Eye of a Needle” Through Feb. 23: Two-person exhibition by Rebecca Bui and Linda Lemon including procelain and fabric dolls and mixed media works on handmade paper. Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, www.artolio.com 

“Ton of Joy” Through Mar. 1: Group show of twelve painters and sculptors: Simone Anders, Susan Brady, Erin Fitzgerald, Karen Frey, Kei Hanafusa, Nancy Legge, Burke Rainey, Robin Sebourn, Kristen Throop, Clay Vajgrt, Whitney Vosburgh, Ann West; Mon. - Sat., 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Hollis Street Project, 5900 Hollis St., Emeryville. 

“Celebrating the African Diaspora” Through Mar. 1: A Black History Month Exhibit celebrating the contributions of Africans in America and throughout the Diaspora. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.; University of Creation Sprituality, 2141 Broadway, Oakland, 835-4827 x31 

“Trace of a Human” Feb. 28 through Mar. 30: Jim Freeman and Krystyna Mleczko exhibit their latest works including mixed media sculpture installation and acrylic on canvas paintings. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, gallery709@aol.com 

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography; Through Mar. 24: “Migrations: Photographs by Sebastiao Salgado,” over 300 black-and-white photographs of immigrants and refugees taken by the Brazilian photographer. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

“A Retrospective Show” Through Mar. 13: The Women’s Cancer Resource Center “The Art of Living Black,” an Open Studios event for local African American artists. The Gallery features a retrospective show of the work of the late Jan Hart-Schuyers. Mon. - Thurs. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m., Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286 x307, www.wcrc.org. 

The Richmond Art Center Through Mar. 16: “The Art of Living Black 2002: The sixth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition and Art Tour,” group exhibition of 81 artists; “Introspección Dual: Recent Painting by Verónica B. Rojas and Santiago Gervas”; “Transmutations: Recent work by Tim Jag”; “The NIAD` Family,” Artwork from the National Institute of Art and Disabilities; “Still Here,” collaborative art project about AIDS in the 21st century; “Girls in the Hall,” artwork by girls incarcerated in the San Francisco juvenile justice system; Tues. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; The Art of Living Black Art Tour Weekend: Mar. 2 and 3, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; 2540 Barrett Ave., 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org. 

“Stas Orlovski” Feb. 16 through Mar. 23: New work by Stas Orlovski featuring a series of large paintings and drawings examining the relationships between body and landscape and eastern and western aesthetics. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St., 527-1214 

“Average Female (Perfect)” Through Mar. 24: Manhattan-based artist Sowon Kwon projects footage of the first ever perfect-scoring gymnasts: Romanian, Nadia Comanece and Russian, Nelli Kim at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Kwon superimposes over the gymnasts a hand-drawn outline of the “average” female body to direct the audience’s attention to the gymnasts’ movements throughout their performances. Wed. - Sun 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4 - $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

"Earthly Pleasures" assemblage and photographs by Susan Danis, Through March 30: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Mon. - Sat.; Sticks, 1579 B, Solano Ave., 526-6603.  

“Domestic Bliss” Through Apr. 4: Collection of abstract paintings and mixed medium by Amy St. George. Albany Community Center Foyer Gallery, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany, 524-9283. 

Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future Feb. 15 through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Feb. 2 through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Feb. 7 through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Feb. 7 through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

“Being There” Feb. 23 through May 12: An exhibit of paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media works by 45 contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

“Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002” Mar. 9 through Aug. 25: An exhibit that includes 66 paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to the present, featuring views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sun. 12 - 5 p.m. $6, adults, $4 children. The Oakland Museum of California, Oak and 10th St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Readings 

Black Oak Books Feb. 27: 7:30 p.m., Author & Activist Randy Schutt discussing his new book "Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good 

Society." 1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698. 

Boadecia’s Books Feb. 9: 7:30 p.m., Loolwa Khazzoom reads from her new book “Conseqence: Beyond Resisting Rape” which takes a street savy look at street harassment. The evening will include a screening of the film “War Zone” and several spoken word presentations. Free. 398 Colusa, Kensington, 595-4642 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Feb. 15: Nuala O’Faolain talks about “My Dream of You”; Feb. 19: Tracy Hogg will tell “Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers”; Feb. 21: Dan Bessie discusses Alvah Bessie’s Spanish Civil War Notebooks; Feb. 27: 6 p.m., Rodney Yee brings “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body”; Feb. 28: Rosemary Wells talks about children, children’s books, and the importance of reading; All events begin at 7 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com.  

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Feb. 7: Mark Kurlansky considers “Salt: A World History”; Feb. 11: Edward O. Wilson discusses “The Future of Life”; Feb. 12: Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé offer “Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet”; Feb. 15: Cindy Engel describes “Wild Health: How Animals Keep Themselves Well and What We Can Learn From Them”; Feb. 19: Robert Cohen reads from “Inspired Sleep”; Feb. 22: “The Whole World is Watching,” a panel discussion with Harold Adler, Leon F. Litwack, Charles Wollenberg, Hollynn D’Lil, Ronald J. Riesterer and Cathy Cade; Feb. 25: David Henry Sterry describes “Chicken: Self-portrait of a Young Man for Rent”; Feb. 26: Carter Scholz reads from “Radiance”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Coffee With a Beat Feb. 2: Julia Vinograd, Shauna Rogan; Feb. 9: Sydney Bell, Debrale Pagan; All readings 7-9 p.m., free and followed by open mike. 458 Perkins, Oakland, 526-5985.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Feb. 5: William Chapman presents slides and reads from his book, “The Face of Tibet”; Feb. 7: A panel of female travel writers read from their works published in “The Unsavvy Travelers”, a chronicle of hilarious tales of cathartic misadventures on the road; Feb. 19: Christopher Baker, author of “Costa Rica: Moon Handbook” presents a slide show demonstrating what makes the Central American country so appealing; Richard Sterling, author of Lonely Planet’s “World Food: Greece”, presents a culinary tour revealing the culture and character of Greece through the medium of her cuisine’s; Feb. 28: Terrence Ward reads from his book “Searching for Hassan: An American Family’s Journey Home to Iran”; All readings are free and start at 7:30 p.m., 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose, 843-3533. 

Shambhala Booksellers Feb. 3: 7 p.m., William Peterson will read from his latest book “Voices in the Dark: Esoteric, Occult & Secular Voices in Nazi-Occupied Paris 1990-1994”. Free. 242 Telegraph Ave., 848-8443 

Poetry 

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Feb. 6: Adrianne Marcus, Diana O’Hehir; Feb. 10: Cathy Coldman, Judith Serin; Feb. 13: Murray Silverstein, Gillian Wegener, Helen Wickes; Feb. 17: Sharon Doubiago, Doren Robbins; Feb. 20: Linda Elkin, Steve Rood; Feb. 27: Stephen Kessler and John Oliver Simon; All events begin at 7:30 p.m., $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org. 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

Oakland Museum of California Feb. 14: 1 p.m., Diane Curry shares her experiences researching photographic archives for the history of Oakland, free; Feb. 17: 12 - 4 p.m., A family program in which artists engage families in creative projects inspired by the work of California African American artists; 2 - 3 p.m., Artist Raymond Howell discusses his creative process and artistic techniques. $6 general, $4 seniors and students with ID. 10th & Oak St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley, 642-5132, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Friday, Feb. 22

Grand Canyon Splendor: Rafting the Colorado 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author and former river guide, Tyler Williams, presents the dramatic beauty of the Grand Canyon in his slide presentation on rafting the Colorado. 527-7377 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Short stories. 232-1351. 

Saturday, Feb. 23

Archaeological Institute of America 

3 p.m. 

Shorb House 

2547 Channing Way 

Lecture by Dr. Stuart Swiny discussing Cypriot rituals surrounding fertility, life and death from the Neolithic to the Roman era. 415-338-1537, barbaram@sfsu.edu. 

Paying for Public Education: 

Whose Job Is It? 

3 - 5:30 p.m. 

Ocean View Elementary School 

Multi-Purpose Room 

1000 Jackson St., Albany 

A forum with Kevin Gordon of the Education Coalition, who will explain state-level funding for K-12 schools. Candidates for the California Assembly 14th District seat debate: Dave Brown (D), Loni Hancock (D), and Charles Ramsey (D). 524-7004, hao_kco@pacbell. net.  

Monday, Feb. 25

A Rose Grew in Brooklyn: Stories from a Jewish Girlhood 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Local author and therapist, Rose Fox reads from her memoir. 

Institute of Government Studies 

12 p.m. 

119 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

John Matsasuka presents a lecture entitled “For the Many or the Few: How the Initiative Process Changes American Government”. 642-4608, www.igs.berkeley.edu 

U. S. Nuclear Weapons Program 

9 p.m. 

Wesley Student Center  

2398 Bancroft Way 

Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, speaks on the U.S. nuclear weapons program, including new, mini-nukes, plutonium shipments to Livermore Lab., the National Ignition Facility project, recent law suits filed against the government. 527-2057.  

Parkinson’s Support Group 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1801 Hearst Ave. 

A support group for people with Parkinson’s, their families and caregivers.  

527-9075. 

Tuesday, Feb. 26

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

The Legal Challenges of Parenting Facing LGBT Couples 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Room 100 

An informal wine and cheese reception will follow the panel discussion. 415-551-1275, boaltcaucus@yahoo.com. 

Berkeley Organization for  

Animal Advocacy Presents:  

Dr. Ned C. Buyukmihci 

7 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

204 Wheeler Hall 

Buyukmihci will speak about the ethical dangers of animal experimentation. 925-487-4419, http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~boaa/. 

Wednesday, Feb. 27

Berkeley Gray Panthers 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Defending and improving Medicare. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com.  

Berkeley Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Auditorium 

Berkeley mental health clinic. 644-8562. 

Poetry Workshop 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

The Literary Arts Program at the Berkeley Art Center is starting a weekly, 3 month poetry workshop facilitated by Rob Lipton. All levels welcome. 665-1662. 

Thursday, Feb. 28

Cody's Evening for Parents and Teachers 

7 p.m. 

Cody's Books 

1730 Fourth St. 

Rosemary Wells, children's author of dozens of books including Max and Ruby and Noisy Nora, will discuss children, books, and the importance of reading to your children. 527-6667, www.parentsnet.org. 

Trekking in Bhutan 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Seasoned traveler, Ruther Anne Kocour will share slides and stories of her adventures trekking in this majestic country. 527-7377 

Take the Terror Out of Talking 

noon - 1:10 p.m. 

Calif. Dept. Health Services 

2151 Berkeley Way 

Room 804 

State Health Toastmasters Club is presenting a six-week Speechcraft workshop to help you overcome your fear of speaking in public and improve your communication skills. Cost is $36 for six sessions, Feb. 28 & March 7, 14, 21. 649-7750. 

The Writing Life 

4:30 p.m. 

North Branch Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Peter S. Beagle will discuss his works and the life and times of a professional writer. 649-3913, www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Photographing the Famous 

7:30 p.m. 

College Preparatory School Auditorium 

1600 Broadway, Oakland 

Michael Collopy will talk about photographing the famous (Mother Teresa, Frank Sinatra, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela).  

– Compiled by Guy Poole 

In most BSAL matchups, the St. Mary’s girls’ basketball team just wears their opponents out. But on Thursday, Holy Names just refused to go away, taking the Panthers down to the buzzer and losing 37-35. 

The Panthers came close to blowing a six-point lead with just two minutes left to play. Holy Names had three different possessions that could have given them the lead, but the Monarchs just couldn’t quite make it all the way back. 

“It’s hard to play a team three times in one season,” St. Mary’s head coach Don Lawson said. “They figured out how to play us. Their coach is very good, and he did some things tonight that offset our strengths.” 

The main thing the Monarchs did was collapse on the St. Mary’s post players anytime the ball went inside. That strategy helped hold freshman Shantrell Sneed, who averages nearly 20 points per game, to just 12 points, and senior Kamaiya Warren to just 4 points. Sneed often settled for medium-range jumpers rather than going inside, probably a good idea while she recovers from a sprained knee. The freshman also took a hard fall into her own bench early in Thursday’s game, but appeared to be unharmed. 

St. Mary’s opened its largest lead at 18-8 early in the second quarter with a 10-0 run, but the Monarchs cut the lead to 22-18 at halftime. With their inside game handcuffed, the Panthers started heaving up shots from the outside, hitting with irregularity and keeping Holy Names close. Although St. Mary’s pulled out to a 32-25 lead early in the fourth quarter, they just couldn’t put together a finishing run.  

Guard Meghan Leary made a free throw to make the score 37-31 with two minutes left in the game, but that was the last time St. Mary’s would score. Holy Names would get buckets from Johana Padilla and Beth Costa to get within two points with 16 seconds left, and Leary committed a travel to give them the ball back with 11 second on the clock. But Leary made up for her gaffe by stealing the ball back. She was fouled with 0.8 seconds left and missed her free throw, but Junai Dawson couldn’t gather the ball in for a shot. 

St. Mary’s will face top-seeded Kennedy in the final on Saturday. The Eagles blew through the regular season undefeated in the BSAL, leaning on the strength of senior center Diedra Chatman. Lawson thinks his team matches up well with Kennedy. 

“I think we’ll actually have a much better chance to get the ball inside than we did tonight,” he said. “They’ll put Deidra on Kamaiya, but they don’t have anyone else to match up with Shantrell. They’ll try to pressure our guards, so we need good perimeter play.”

Next week the city of Berkeley will step a little closer to reconfiguring its eight electoral districts to better agree with new census information using a plan submitted by Elliot Cohen of Nuclear Free Berkeley. 

Other plans were were also presented by Tim Hansen, University of California Berkeley student Josh Fryday, Nick Rizzo, a 16-year-old Berkeley High School student and Councilmember Dona Spring. 

Council unanimously agreed to further study Cohen’s plan at midnight Wednesday morning after some two hours of heated debate. Rizzo’s plan was also approved for further study by a 5 to 4 vote. 

“My plan draws from the one vote/one person principle which is base don the idea that you want each district to have the same number of voters,” 

Cohen said. “This is not a plan that goes along with my political biases. I did it because I saw what happened last time. 

“So, if there was fighting this time around between council about who gets what, and no one was able to come up with a compromise, I hoped my plan could be used to bridge things and create peace on the Council.” 

This was Cohen’s second shot a creating a plan, and he says this success is based upon a lot of lessons he learned from previous failures. 

A call for redistricting plans was put out to residents in January after the council could not decide on an appropriate plan. 

The City Charter requires new district lines to be drawn every 10 years, following the U.S. Census Bureau’s population count. But because of the bureau’s undercount of about 4,500 residents in districts 7 and 8, a fair redistricting plan was difficult for the council to settle upon. 

Citizens for Fair Representation, who protested against an early plan, commented during the meeting Tuesday night about the fairness of Cohen’s plan in relationship to other plans. 

They were specifically moved by Cohen’s 1 percent deviation from the actual numbers. They also applauded Cohen for being able to put his own legal agenda aside. 

But essentially, the redistrciting is about numbers, communities and politics. 

“I too was looking at this process and trying to figure how this might work out best for me,” Councilmember Linda Maio said. “But I just don’t agree with this.” 

In the end Maio voted for Cohen’s plan because it seeemed to be the most honest of all the plans. Citizens for Fair Representation sokesperson agreed that the plans brought forth this tiem around wer9e much better than previous years. 

“All the plans do much more in an attempted to be nonpartisana,” a spokersperson for the Citizens for Fair Representation said. 

“Do not use the term of community of interest to further narrow political goals,” said John Curl. “The only two that I can see that really equitably distribute the undervount is Nick Rizzo’s and councilmember’s Springs.” 

Dear Editor, 

It is in Berkeley’s best interest to elect Charles Ramsey on March 5, as our Representative in the State Assembly. While we have two excellent candidates in Charles Ramsey and Loni Hancock, who agree on Berkeley’s and California’s problems, it is much better for Berkeley to vote for Charles Ramsey. This conclusion is supported by reviewing the statements in Loni’s campaign mailers! Hancock stresses her insight in our long-standing problems derived from her local public service and her commitment to resolving them as well as the abundant Political connections she has in Washington as well as Sacramento.  

Your vote for Ramsey is best for Berkeley because we get additional energy and perspective to resolving our nagging problems and we get Loni too! Her commitment to Berkeley, political influence will not vanish the day after the election, she will still be able to make Berkeley’s voice heard in Sacramento and Washington, so Berkeley gets both Loni and Ramsey by voting for Ramsey! If the contest between the two to who will best resolve Berkeley’s problems continues, it will be a contest based on accomplishments rather than campaign promises!  

Local public education is an area where a different approach would be of more benefit to Berkeley, Ramsey will represent Berkeley’s educational interests in Sacramento.  

Given Loni is committed to helping Berkeley finally deliver the promise implicit in voluntarily integrating public schools almost 40 years ago, and that Berkeley has supported our schools with massive Bond issues, more than $10 million per year from the BSEP tax as well as other donations of money and time, it seems that the solution to our education problems must be found locally. Loni should be running for School Board, the Board and our children need the benefit of her experience and leadership. 

I realize that there is a third candidate for the assembly, however Dave Brown’s campaign promises merely will dump more single passenger cars and their pollution into 

Berkeley and thus appears not interested in representing Berkeley.  

John Cecil  

Berkeley

The people in the speakeasy in Verona, PA. used to flip young Gwen Avery nickels to play records on the jukebox. 

“It would be B5 or S6 or whatever,” said Avery, now 59 and living in Berkeley. “So that’s how I learned the songs, not by the name of the artist, but by the number.” 

Avery is herself a kind of mix-and-match jukebox, capable of low-down trouble blues, harmonic doo-wop and nimble scats – while accompanying herself on the electric piano. “If you threw in Bessie Smith, Etta James, Satchmo, Ma Rainey, Nina Simone, Esther Phillips, and Mahalia Jackson in a big pot and mixed it up, you’d get me,” she said. 

And there’s no denying that Avery has a special gift when she breaks out into the spiritual “How Long” in middle of her living room with a voice as wide and deep as the Mississippi River. 

“I’ve got a good memory of my roots,” said Avery. “It comes out whenever I open my mouth.” 

For Avery, music is in the bones. She was born into a musical family and sang with her parents until she was 4 years old, when they split. After that, she was raised in her grandmother’s speakeasy , with a crowd that was always drinking, dancing and talking too loud.  

“Naturally I became an entertainer growing up with all those grown-ups,” she said. “They expected me to be something cute.” 

It is this rollicking juke-joint that Avery hopes to recreate when she plays at a benefit concert for Mayoral Candidate Wilson Riles at Humanist Hall in Oakland tonight and when she jams with her Blues Band Sistah’s at the Jon Sims Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Saturday. 

Not only does she want to bring back the dance-out-of-your-seat good times, Avery said, but also the camaraderie that was special in her segregated hometown. 

“It was the only place in town where everybody could mingle,” said Avery. “People of all races would get a beer, listen to music, and talk about their homelands. It was a little tiny melting pot.” 

A search for more of this combination of diversity and intimacy led her to the Bay Area. “The looseness was astonishing,” she said. “The way people would ride public transportation and huddle together!”  

Before she decided to stay in San Francisco, she stopped off in several cities, including Chicago, where she made up her mind to take up singing as a profession. At first Avery and the hippie friends were just taking it all in, astounded that $2 could get them into bars to see the likes of Carol King and Miriam Makeba. 

But then her friends heard her sing and told her she should seriously consider making singing her life.  

“I said, ‘Me?’” 

It didn’t take long before record labels like Decca and Arista started paying attention. “But I wasn’t ready for that regimentation,” said Avery. “I was too much of a free spirit.” 

Lack of a stable finances did mean she had to employ “other skills” to survive in the early days, she said with a chuckle. “I cut hair. I knew how to play pool very well, so I could always hustle. My grandma was a bootlegger so I learned a lot. I knew what I had to do to survive.” 

These days she still cuts albums on an independent record label, practices in her house and loads all of her own musical equipment in the back of her new truck. Avery and Emily Tincher, her manager and partner, may run a small-scale operation that relies on word-of-mouth publicity, but Avery's popularity doesn’t suffer. 

Her schedule is full of gigs at battered women’s shelters, prisons, or black history month celebrations at local colleges. Last year, Outmusic, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered musicians’ organization, named Avery’s “Sugar Mama” New Album of the Year. 

“It’s a slow crank, but I like it that way,” said Avery. “I never craved the big excitement like--what's her name? ... Britney.” 

Seniors lead boys to easy victory 

For the last two seasons, the St. Mary’s High boys’ basketball team has depended on a trio of current seniors. Thursday night against St. Joseph in the BSAL playoffs, DaShawn Freeman, John Sharper and Chase Moore keyed yet another victory to put the Panthers in the league championship game. 

Sharper and Moore each scored 20 points and Freeman dished out 12 assists in the 69-61 St. Mary’s win on Senior Night. Fellow senior Terrence Boyd also scored 12 points. The Panthers (24-2 overall) will face archrival Salesian on Saturday for the BSAL title and an automatic bid to the North Coast Section playoffs. 

Sharper scored 10 of his points in the second quarter as the Panthers started to pull away. A 16-9 first-quarter lead ballooned to 27-12 as the St. Mary’s defense caused turnover after turnover. Freeman ended the half with a penetration kick-out to Sharper, who calmly drained his second 3-pointer of the quarter for a 37-21 halftime lead. 

“The second quarter was big for us,” St. Mary’s head coach Jose Caraballo said. “Our pressure really got to them, and we got our transition game going.” 

The Pilots (21-7) wouldn’t go quietly, however. Senior Ari Warmerdam turned it on in the second half, scoring 22 of his game-high 27 points after the break. The 6-foot-5 forward poured in 14 points in the third quarter alone to drag his team back to within 53-43, but the Pilots would get no closer until a 3-pointer from Murphy Holmes at the final buzzer. 

Warmerdam appeared to be the only Pilot who came ready to play, at least on the offensive end. The second-leading scorer for St. Joseph was Jeff Fuller with 7 points, and while 13 different Pilots scored, no other player had more than 4 points. 

With the playoffs shaking out exactly to form, the Panthers will get another shot at Salesian on Saturday. It will be the second meeting this season, and there’s more on the line than a league title. The Panthers are shooting for two straight undefeated BSAL seasons, not to mention a top seed in the NCS Division I playoffs. Salesian, on the other hand, will be playing more for pride. They have lost to St. Mary’s four times in a row over the last two seasons, and this will be the Chieftans’ last shot at a win over the St. Mary’s seniors. 

“They’re our biggest rival, and they’re going to come out and try to get revenge on us,” Sharper said. “We can’t let that happen.” 

Freeman said his fellow seniors won’t take the Chieftans lightly. 

“Especially us seniors, we want to win this last one,” he said. “It’s a big rivalry, and I want to win it for the school as well as for the team.” 

Saturday’s championship game is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. at Albany High’s gym. 

Caraballo said the game plan won’t change much from the teams’ meeting two weeks ago, a 70-57 Panther win. 

“We’re going to play our game and make them adjust to us,” he said. “They’re the ones that lost.”

School and city officials discussed the closure of City of Franklin Microsociety Magnet School, parking tickets at Willard Middle School and the value of city-school symposiums at their monthly “2 x 2” meeting Thursday. 

The Board of Education, which needs to trim about $6 million to balance next year’s budget, has indicated it will likely close Franklin next year, saving the district an estimated $326,000. 

City Councilmember Linda Maio said residents in her district with children enrolled at Franklin have called her with concerns about where they will enroll their kids next year, and asked that the issue be placed on the agenda for a formal, joint City Council-Board of Education meeting scheduled for March 20. 

The two bodies meet in official joint session twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. 

Franklin teachers have asked the board to provide displaced students with first choice in schools next year, and board members have indicated that they would like to give students preference, as long as space and racial balance issues at other schools are addressed. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence, speaking at the board’s meeting, suggested that if the Franklin closure goes through, the district might move an overcrowded Jefferson School into the larger Franklin building, and move district headquarters into Jefferson. 

Currently, the district is renting the Old City Hall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way from the city for its central office. The lease will run out in a few years, and city manager Weldon Rucker said the city would like to take over the building, seismically retrofit it, and possibly expand it. 

He said city officials and citizen commissions would likely make use of the office space in the historic building. 

Timiza Wagner, project manager at Willard Middle School, said Principal Michele Patterson and other teachers and administrators have had trouble getting parking permits from the city and have accumulated a number of parking tickets. 

“She would like very much to have something done about these tickets,” Wagner said, making reference to Patterson. “She is a servant of the Berkeley Unified School District and the community.” 

Rucker said he would look into the issue and take care of it. 

Joaquin Rivera, vice president of the school board, raised concerns about the value of “2 x 2” meetings and the two joint City Council-Board of Education meetings. 

“They just don’t seem to be useful,” Rivera said, calling for better organization of the “2 x 2” meetings, and more time for serious discussion at the joint sessions. 

Currently, he said, the two bodies meet for only an hour, with a half-hour reserved for public comment at each session. With nine city Councilmembers and five school board members, he said, there is little time for in-depth conversation. 

Editor: 

As a member of the Berkeley rabble in good standing I can speak with authority, or against it. And in the university’s most recent scandal, the voice of authority I’ll speak against ran in a letter to the Daily Californian, our student newspaper. 

“The university was created to exercise the intellect of man, not the emotions of man. As long as my university conducts classes where immature emotions are exercised as ‘academic’ study, I will withhold my support,” wrote Berkeley alumnus Ronald Pavellas. 

By immature emotional classes, Ronald Pavellas means those tied to the sex scandal, where one of the student-taught De-Cal courses allegedly involved orgies and field trips to the Garden of Eden, a San Francisco shack of sin. 

“The alma mater of my father and I is losing its proper focus and is pandering to those for whom the intellect is foreign territory,” he continued. 

First of all, if he meant to sound like a Harvard grad instead of one from Berkeley, he should have written “my father and me.” Besides that, he sounds like a great number of people who simply find themselves outraged by news of the goings-on under the sheets here. 

The administration is looking over the entire 20-year-old program of student-run courses, considering tighter supervision and intervention in what used to be the pride and joy of liberal, democratic education.  

But let me tell you how the students look at it. We know what constitutes a De-Cal course. We knew before the scandal.  

I considered taking a two-unit De-Cal course this semester and asked a friend who teaches one, and who will go unnamed, about it. 

“You can come to class every day drunk and high, or both,” he told me. “You’ll still get an A.” 

And, if the student instructor doesn’t put on airs of being a professor, that’s the classroom policy in a lot of cases. Those that put on airs find their attendance dropping very fast. It would surprise me to discover someone who takes a De-Cal course with sincere intentions of intellectual pursuit. The courses equal units, free of charge. Intellectual pursuit is reserved for lecture halls and 200-pages-a-night reading assignments in professored classes. 

But someone will always bring out a silk handkerchief and rub their glasses and harrumph. They are only kidding themselves, though. 

Any night of the week, there are more of my fellow students than can fit inside a classroom, visiting the strip of clubs on Broadway. 

Any night of the week, there are more of my fellow students than I can imagine doing the unimaginable. 

And any night of the week, there are a great deal of students who stay home and read serious books and make the intellect their domestic territory. 

There’s one thing that both sides of this case need to admit to themselves. In all likelihood, they secretly do. It’s the simple fact that there is a time and place for everything.  

It’s called Berkeley. 

Daniel Velton 

UC Berkeley student

NEW YORK — He may not know it, but when Bob Dylan signals his band to start a song onstage Friday night in Dallas, more than 1,000 people far from the arena are keenly interested in his choice. 

Fans of the veteran troubadour have launched an intricate Internet pool built on their predictions of what Dylan sings in concert. 

The pool reflects both the obsessive interest Dylan still draws 40 years into his career and the way this road warrior has structured his career. He generally plays more than 150 concerts a year. 

For the fans, it’s mostly fun. 

“If I ever got a chance to meet him, I’d say ‘thanks,”’ said one player, Becky Dalton, of Westminster, Calif. “I’m almost 49, and he makes me feel 16 when I go to see him. He’d probably look at us and say, ‘get a life.”’ 

Dylan is into the second decade of what is jokingly called his “Never-Ending Tour.” He’s typically on the road for a month or two at a time, rests for a few weeks, then starts anew. 

There are 1,054 people from 50 countries competing in the Internet pool for his current set of dates, which ends Sunday in Austin. He returns on April 5 in Stockholm for a five-week European swing. 

The pool was started a year ago by 24-year-old Canadian graduate student and computer expert Arthur Louie, and has quickly grown. 

Participants pick a set of songs, which are given point values: low for the songs Dylan plays most frequently, high for the songs he plays rarely. 

It’s a game that could be created around very few artists. For one thing, not many perform as much as Dylan. For another, most acts are so tightly choreographed their set lists change very little, if at all, from city to city. 

The Grateful Dead, while still active, could have probably done it. Phish, now on hiatus, had a similar game going, Louie said. 

Dylan usually plays around 20 songs a night. During a 35-date concert swing last fall, he played 92 different songs, Louie said. The pool has exhaustively catalogued his current tour: “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Honest With Me” and “Summer Days” were played on each of the first 14 dates. 

Twelve different songs, including “Visions of Johanna” and “Simple Twist of Fate,” were performed only once. 

Dylanologists study his set lists posted every morning after concerts for tendencies. They’ve noticed he’s begun most concerts lately with an acoustic cover tune, and has been performing a lot of songs from his Grammy-nominated album, “Love and Theft.” 

That might be expected — artists usually try to promote their latest albums on tour — but it hasn’t always been the case with Dylan. 

His unpredictability is legendary. Larry Shapiro, 46, an environmental attorney from New York City, says he’s moved up to 149th place in the current competition mostly because he’s given up trying to stay a step ahead of the maestro. 

“It’s a frightening thought to think that anybody can think like Bob,” he said. 

Winners of the game can actually win prizes, though Dylan might not appreciate them. The grand prize for the current competition is a CD box set of bootlegged Dylan concerts. 

Does Dylan himself know about the game? That’s cause for speculation on the Dylan pool; his spokesman, Elliott Mintz, thinks not. Mintz wrote down the Web address when told about the game to check it out himself. 

“To my knowledge, he doesn’t spend any time online,” Mintz said. “He’s not a big computer guy.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://pool.dylantree.com 

http://www.bobdylan.com 

Amit Tamir shredded the UCLA defense for 14-second-half points as Cal routed the Bruins, 69-51, last night at Haas Pavilion in a game that got testy down the stretch.  

With the win, Cal improved its record to 19-6 and 10-5 in the Pac-10. UCLA fell to 17-9 and 9-6. Cal moved past UCLA into sole possession of third place in the conference.  

Cal was coming off a disheartening loss at Washington, 75-60. Prior to that game, Matt Lyon, Cal’s assistant vice chancellor for public affairs, who was accompanying the Bears on the Washington trip, passed away of a heart attack.  

“(Thursday) was a huge game for us,” Cal coach Ben Braun said. “This was the biggest game our team has had to face, after a tough loss, a tragic death of a close member of our basketball family. To play under these conditions is really something.”  

The game bore little resemblance to the tight 64-57 loss the Bears suffered to the Bruins down in Los Angeles on Jan. 26. Back then, the Bears struggled mightily against the Bruins’ 2-3 zone. This time, they aggressively attacked the zone in the first half and then made their perimeter shots over the zone in the second stanza. Cal shot 6-of-11 from three-point range in the second half after making just 1-of-9 threes in the first half. The Bears shot 46.3 percent from the field for the game.  

“They allowed us to move the ball a lot more,” Cal guard Brian Wethers said. “They didn’t pressure as much on the wing.”  

“They just got the ball inside and that opened up their outside,” UCLA coach Steve Lavin said. “They took 30-plus threes in the game at Pauley [Pavilion]. Today they came out and established the game in the paint.”  

Tamir led Cal in scoring with 18 points. Wethers (15 points), Solomon Hughes (12) and Joe Shipp (11) also scored in double figures. Shipp and Wethers led Cal with 6 rebounds apiece. Wethers completed his all-around play by leading Cal with 6 assists. Overall, Cal had 21 assists on its 25 field goals.  

UCLA’s Dan Gadzuric tied Tamir for game-high honors with 18 and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, but Cal’s stingy defense held UCLA’s leading scorer Jason Kapono, who averaged 17.6 points per game coming into the night, to just 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting.  

With the Golden Bears up 66-51 with 2:24 to go, UCLA forward Matt Barnes clotheslined Cal point guard Shantay Legans as the latter went up for a rebound. Barnes, a 6-foot-7, 235-pound forward, knocked the 5-foot-10, 175-pound Legans to the floor, which he hit headfirst. Legans was unconscious for about two minutes and Barnes was ejected from the game. After Legans walked off the court with a likely concussion, Dennis Gates replaced him to sink one of two free throws. Legans’ availability for Saturday afternoon’s clash with USC was unknown.  

“It depends on how severe it is,” Braun said. “If it’s a severe concussion, he may not [play]. That would be very unfortunate. The good thing is he’s okay right now.” 

Hughes and Wethers led the way for the Bears in the first half with 10 points each. In fact, Hughes made his first five shots as Cal bolted out to a 16-7 lead. Cal figured out how to score against UCLA’s zone and also how to shut down the Bruins. Gadzuric was the only Bruin who could get any offensive rhythm, as his team shot just 33.3 percent from the field in the half. UCLA shot 50 percent in the second half to finish with a respectable 42.6 mark for the game.  

In the second half, Cal rode a three-point barrage to open up the game at 55-32. During one stretch, from the 17:03 to the 10:44 mark, Cal slapped a 20-6 run on the Bruins with six threes among the seven made baskets. The other basket was a two-handed dunk from Wethers. Tamir, who shot 2-of-7 overall in the first half and was 0-of-3 from beyond the arc, hit three 3-pointers during the run. Shipp added two from long range and Ryan Forehan-Kelly hit another. Tamir had three of his four assists during the run.  

“Our passing was sharp, crisp,” Braun said. “We played unselfishly. We did everything we had to do to win. I’m proud of our team.”

Today is Friday, Feb. 22, the 53rd day of 2002. There are 312 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On Feb. 22, 1732, the first president of the United States, George Washington, was born at his parents’ plantation in the Virginia Colony. 

On this date: 

In 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the United States. 

In 1865, Tennessee adopted a new constitution abolishing slavery. 

In 1879, Frank Winfield Woolworth opened a five-cent store in Utica, N.Y. 

In 1889, President Cleveland signed a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union. 

In 1892, “Lady Windermere’s Fan,” by Oscar Wilde, was first performed, at London’s St. James’s Theater. 

In 1924, Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House. 

In 1935, it became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House. 

In 1973, the United States and China agreed to establish liaison offices. 

In 1980, the U.S. Olympic hockey team upset the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-to-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.) 

In 1987, pop artist Andy Warhol died at a New York City hospital at age 58. 

Ten years ago: President Bush renewed his attack on a Democratic tax plan, saying in a radio address that congressional Democrats were choosing “politics over duty.” At the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, American speedskater Cathy Turner won the women’s 500-meter race. 

Five years ago: Cutbacks began under new welfare law limiting childless adults, under age 50 and able to work, to three months of food stamps in any three-year period. Albert Shanker, the leader of the American Federation of Teachers who championed public school reforms, died in New York at age 68. 

One year ago: President Bush held his first full-fledged presidential news conference, in which he defended his tax-cutting and budget-tightening plans and gave FBI director Louis Freeh a vote of confidence following the arrest of veteran agent Robert Hanssen on spying charges. A U.N. war crimes tribunal convicted three Bosnian Serbs standing trial on charges of rape and torture in the first case of wartime sexual enslavement to go before an international court. 

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Sir John Mills is 94. Announcer Don Pardo is 84. Actor Paul Dooley is 74. Hollywood “ghost singer” Marni Nixon is 72. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., is 70. Movie director Jonathan Demme is 58. Actor John Ashton is 54. Actress Ellen Greene is 52. Actress Miou-Miou is 52. Actress Julie Walters is 52. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Julius Erving is 52. Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 43. Actress Jeri Ryan is 34. Actress-singer Lea Salonga is 31. Actor Jose Solano (“Baywatch”) is 31. Tennis player Michael Chang is 30. Actress Drew Barrymore is 27.

Friday 

Men’s Basketball – Berkeley vs. De Anza, 7 p.m. at Berkeley High School 

Saturday 

Men’s Rugby – Cal vs. University of British Columbia, 1 p.m. at Witter Field 

Men’s Basketball – Cal vs. USC, 3 p.m.  

at Haas Pavilion 

Girls Basketball – St. Mary’s vs. Kennedy (BSAL final), 5:30 p.m. at Albany High School 

Girls Basketball – Berkeley vs. Encinal (ACCAL final), 6 p.m. at Hercules High School 

Boys Basketball – St. Mary’s vs. Salesian (BSAL final), 8 p.m. at Albany High School 

SACRAMENTO — Republican gubernatorial front-runner Richard Riordan collected twice as much as Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in a high-stakes fund-raising battle in recent weeks, reports released Thursday show. 

Riordan collected $2.1 million during a recent 28-day period, while Davis took in $1.1 million. Both spent heavily on dueling television commercials as the primary race entered its final stretch. 

Riordan will face Secretary of State Bill Jones and Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon in the primary in less than two weeks. The victor will challenge Davis in November. 

The newest reports detail fund-raising and spending between Jan. 20 and Feb. 16. They reflect a crush of spending on commercials and an outpouring of cash by Davis and the two leading Republicans who want to unseat him. 

Riordan took in $250,000 during the four-week period from his top donor Univision chief Jerry Perenchio, who has contributed a total $400,000 to the former Los Angeles mayor. Perenchio also has donated at least $350,000 to Davis since February 2000. 

Both Riordan and Simon collected money from companies or individuals heavily involved in offshore oil exploration. Davis recently has publicly rejected federal efforts to settle a lawsuit over the state’s right to review oil and gas leases off California’s coast. 

Riordan received $20,000 from Hushang Ansary of Houston, chairman and CEO of IRI International, an offshore oil drilling company. Ansary, a former Iranian ambassador to the United States and now a U.S. citizen, has been a major supporter of President Bush. 

Simon received $5,000 from Tesoro Petroleum, a Texas-based company active in offshore oil drilling. 

Davis, meanwhile, continued to lure a stream of donations from an array of donors from corporate heavy hitters to worker’s unions. 

Davis spent $5.7 million in four weeks — mostly on television commercials that aired statewide. Riordan, meanwhile, poured $3.6 million into his bid, mostly for television spots. 

Despite raising cash at a clip of $75,000 a day during the four-week stint, Riordan has faced criticism from his own party, come under attack from Davis and has seen his once-commanding lead in polls shrink. 

Simon — a wealthy investor who went from virtually unknown to gaining on Riordan in recent polls — lent his campaign $1.7 million during the period and raised $686,000 in contributions. Many of his contributions have poured in from donors in his native East Coast and from religious conservatives. 

He also received $25,000 from PMX Industries, a Korean-owned copper and brass recycling mill in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and $1,000 from Susan Lyne, the new president of ABC. 

Simon spent $3 million, mainly on positive ads to boost his profile. His popularity has climbed in recent weeks and he has gained the support of some of the Republican party’s key conservatives, and he launched his first negative ad Thursday critical of Riordan. 

Secretary of State Bill Jones, who has struggled to attract donations and has lagged in polls, raised $484,000 during the period and spent $288,000. 

Davis — who faces no opposition until the general election in November — has made the unusual step of plunging into the campaign before the primary. He has launched a string of ads, many of which directly attack Riordan. But he still has the largest campaign treasury by far: He had $28 million to spend as of Feb. 16. 

——— 

On the Net: 

The campaign finance reports can be found at http://www.ss.ca.gov 

Tuesday was the last day for Californians to register to vote for the March 5 election. But looking at the empty registration tables at City Hall that day, you wouldn’t have known it.  

The Department of Elections was hosting an all day voter registration drive. The nonprofit A. Philip Randolph Institute had even volunteered to shuttle unregistered eligible voters to city hall. But by 3 p.m. only 60 of San Francisco’s thousands of unregistered eligible voters had shown up.  

With a primary gubernatorial slot at stake, an ongoing energy crisis and election reform on the ballot, the city’s chief election officer said she hoped more would register before the drive ended, at midnight.  

“It’s very important every San Franciscan comes out to vote,” Tammy Haygood said. “We’re going to stay open to give everyone the chance to register.” 

Tuesday’s rain was limiting the big gains in registration the department expected, Haygood said. Poll workers planned to set up registration tables outside city hall, in easy view of potential voters. But the weather forced them into the basement. 

But the department can’t blame the rain for low registration, said the co-author of an initiative that would allow people to register to vote the day of an election. “This is not a day that tells everybody, ‘Okay it’s Feb. 19, time to go out and register,’” said Chip Neilsen, an attorney for the Election Day Voter Registration campaign, which is trying to get its initiative on the November ballot. “People should be trying to encourage people to register everyday.” 

Six states allow voter registration on Election Day, and all say it has increased their voters’ participation, according to a report by the think-tank Alliance for a Better Campaign. Two years ago the state legislature changed the deadline for registration, giving Californians an additional two weeks to register.  

Though Democrats generally support last-minute voter registration, Gov. Gray Davis is skeptical of it, said Hilary McLean, a Davis spokesperson. “He does have concerns about the integrity of the voting process,” she said. “He would want assurance that there is adequate protection to the system.” 

Voter registration is intended to prevent ballot stuffing, the practice of rigging an election by having the same people vote more than once. Early voter registration deadlines give a registrar ample time to compile lists of registered voters that can be used to cross check individual voters’ identities.  

But early registration deadlines aren’t the only way to ensure the integrity of an election, said Bruce Cain, chair of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. “It is technologically possible to register on the same day and prevent fraud,” he said. “I’m 100 percent in favor of it. We should have done it along time ago.” 

“It shouldn’t be that you have a waiting period,” said James Bryant, president of A. Philip Randolph Institute, the non-profit that shuttled people who wanted to register to city hall Tuesday. “It’s not like you’re getting a gun permit.” Or maybe it is, he said. 

“It’s a political weapon if you can get your community to vote,” he said. 

Despite occasional bouts with low voter turnout, San Francisco generally lives up to its reputation as one of the most politically active cities in the country, said David Binder, a political consultant based in San Francisco.  

Binder’s 1999 study showed 85 percent of San Francisco’s eligible voters were registered.  

“If you want sunshine and entertainment, you go to L.A.,” Binder said. “If you want that big city feel, you go to New York. If you want to be active in politics you go to San Francisco.” 

But registering isn’t the same as voting. Experts say turnout at the March 5 election is likely to be low again, as it was in the November 2001 election when only 30 percent of San Francisco’s registered voters turned out. Twenty-seven percent of California’s likely voters don’t even know there’s an election March 5, a recent Field poll showed.  

Recent allegations of corruption in San Francisco’s Department of Elections mean more voters are likely to stay away from the polls, said Karen Alexander, co-president of California Voter Foundation. Lost or misfiled ballots led the secretary to state to launch an investigation into the November 2000 election.  

“There’s a chronic perception of chronic election fraud in San Francisco,” Alexander said.

Papers show 13 siblings were abused for misbehaving, force-fed and starved 

SAN RAFAEL — The 13 siblings who lived in a cultish family home where one child starved to death were lashed and forced-fed chili peppers if they misbehaved, according to papers filed with the court where the children’s parents appeared Thursday. 

The 12 surviving children, in protective custody since their 19-month-old brother died in mid November, also described a suburban home with harsh punishments for sneaking food during routine three-day fasts. 

One of the girls said she was tied to a playpen at night for two weeks as punishment for eating during a fast, according to the documents. Other children told authorities that discipline included their mouths being sealed with tape and being bent over a weight lifting bench and beaten with a belt. 

Authorities said they seized a so-called “Book of Rules” from the house where Winnfred Wright allegedly terrorized his children along with four women, three of them the children’s mothers, according to documents reviewed by a reporter Wednesday but absent from the court’s file Thursday. 

Wright, 45, and the three mothers — Carol Bremner, 44, Deirdre Wilson, 37, and Mary Campbell, 37 — remain in Marin County jail without bail. During Thursday’s hearing a judge gave the fourth woman, the children’s self-described home school teacher, a chance to make $100,000 bail. 

When the judge announced the bail reduction, Campbell, who is visibly pregnant, turned to Kali Polk-Matthews and smiled, touching her on the arm. But Polk-Matthews, 20, did not post the money by Thursday night and remained behind bars. 

Judge Terrence Boren also imposed a temporary gag order preventing lawyers and officials from speaking publicly about the case. He will review that decision March 12 when the defendants are expected to enter pleas. 

All five adults were indicted earlier this month and arrested on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and child neglect; Polk-Matthews, who only joined the household months ago and did not bear any children, doesn’t face the murder charge. 

The grand jury indicted Polk-Matthews without a request by prosectuors. 

“My niece Kali Matthews is a kind and decent person,” Jim Matthews said outside the courtroom. “I hope that she’s able to extricate herself from this matter. It’s a sad affair all around.” 

Prosecutors argued that Polk-Matthews’ bail should be set at $500,000 because she did little to try and save a 19-month-old the night he died. 

The boy suffered from multiple fractures because he had almost no calcium in his bones, according to forensic child pathologist Gregory Reiber, who did the autopsy on Ndigo Campisi-Nyah-Wright. 

“In spite of being faced with the agony of a child gasping for breath and turning blue, she never called for medical assistance,” prosecutors wrote in papers filed Thursday. Those papers also said some of children were “obviously deformed” and Ndigo was “frighteningly small,” but Polk-Matthews did not contact police. 

Medical authorities have said most of the other children were also malnourished, deprived of sunlight and suffering from rickets, a bone-softening disease caused by a lack of vitamin D. 

Just before Boren issued the gag order on lawyers, law enforcement officials and social workers, Wright’s lawyer took a few shots against media coverage of the case. 

“Because the case involves racial and sexual issues and an alternative lifestyle, it creates an atmosphere vulnerable to voyeurism and sensationalism,” attorney Mary Stearns argued in asking wanted Boren to seal any documents related to the case— a motion opposed by a lawyer for the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Boren didn’t order any further sealings, though several affidavits prosecutors filed Wednesday were missing from the court’s file. 

The Marin Independent Journal reviewed those affidavits and reported that they provided a chilling account of Ndigo’s last days alive. 

One girl in the house said Ndigo got progressively thinner as he was fed a diet of tea with supplements. Wright told investigators the night the baby died he had a hard time breathing and he was placed in front of a television to stimulate his brain, the paper reported. 

Wright has refused requests for interviews. 

Reached at his Sacramento home Thursday night, his father, Leonard Wright, refused to answer questions. 

“I have nothing to say,” Wright said, “Nothing to say.” 

Q. Fran asks: I have well water in my home and of course the water smells. Someone told me if you take out the “rod” in the water heater, the water won’t smell anymore. But what rod is it and how do I get it out? 

A. The problem occurs when the metal rod in glass-lined water heaters (used to improve the life expectancy of the glass lining) combines with waterborne sulfate-reducing bacteria, resulting in the production of hydrogen sulfide. The water is not dangerous to consume, but is difficult to swallow. It smells like rotten eggs. 

Solution 1: Replace the magnesium metal rod (cathodic protection anode) with one made of aluminum (it might not be available for your brand of water heater). The aluminum rod produces 30 percent less current, and therefore generates less hydrogen gas while causing enough current to adequately protect the glass liner. 

Solution 2: Find the point of origin of the sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), and eliminate it. SRB is most common in new-water supply pipes contaminated by soil during construction. The soil carrying the SRB eventually ends up as solids at the bottom of the water heater. A thorough flushing to remove the dirt, then a second flushing with a dash of chlorine, and finally a third flush — to clean — should do the trick. Hydrogen gas without the presence of SRB will go unnoticed. SRB is not so easy to remove if your water company pumps the bacteria into your home along with the water. This will often be the case as increasingly water districts are reducing or ceasing their use of chlorine. Sulfate-reducing bacteria are devastated by chlorination, but will thrive otherwise. 

It is possible to inadvertently contaminate your own water supply by allowing sulfate-reducing bacteria — not to mention other more dangerous bugs — to enter your water system at your own property. This can happen through your sprinklers if you’re not using anti-siphon sprinkler valves, which prevent backwash. Backwash could also result when a water main in your neighborhood is turned off while your garden hose is running in a muddy puddle. 

——— 

For more home improvement tips and information, visit our Web site at www.onthehouse.com. 

Many people are unaware that indoor air pollution can be just as bad as, or even worse than, outdoor air pollution to an individual’s health. 

EPA studies of human exposure to air pollutants indicate that indoor air levels of many pollutants may be two to five times, and occasionally, more than 100 times, higher than outdoor levels. It’s estimated that most people spend as much as 90 percent of their time indoors — making home, school and the workplace potentially hazardous to one’s health. Health risks probably are higher for infants, the elderly and people with chronic diseases. 

Further, laws designed to improve energy efficiency by cutting down on drafts don’t improve indoor air quality. Tightly sealed homes constructed in the last couple of decades might have diminished the use of fossil fuels, but have wreaked havoc with Americans’ respiratory systems. Homes that can’t “breathe” can’t dilute pollutants contained in building and decorating products. 

Indoor pollution sources that release gases or particles into the air are the primary cause of indoor air-quality problems. Inadequate ventilation can increase indoor pollutant levels by not bringing in enough outdoor air to dilute emissions from indoor sources, and by not carrying indoor air pollutants out of the home. This allows concentrations to build up. High temperature and humidity levels also can increase concentrations of some pollutants. 

All these pollutants have one thing in common; they contain chemicals that are part of a larger class of chemicals known as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). VOCs are organic (carbon-based) chemicals that evaporate readily at room temperature. VOCs typically are found in high indoor concentrations in dry-cleaned clothing; chloroform from chlorinated water; benzene from tobacco smoke (one of the leading indoor air pollutants); formaldehyde from fabrics, pressed wood products and insulation; styrene found in adhesives, foam, lubricants, plastics carpets and insulation; methylene chloride from paint strippers; and carbon tetrachloride from paint removers. 

Other potential sources of indoor air pollution are central heating, cooling and dehumidification systems, household cleaning and maintenance products, outdoor sources such as pesticides and biological contaminants such as animal dander, mold and cockroaches. 

While indoor air pollution affects people differently, in general, short-term exposure might cause immediate effects such as headaches, dizziness and allergies. Long-term exposures can result in respiratory disease, heart disease and cancer, all of which can be severely debilitating, even fatal. 

Building-related illness is an identifiable disease or illness that can be traced to a specific pollutant or source within a building. In contrast, the term “sick building (sick home) syndrome” is used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but where no specific illness or cause can be identified. Both syndromes are associated with acute or immediate health problems. 

While this is not particularly good news, awareness is the first step in creating a more healthful indoor environment and improving your health. Your best defense against indoor air pollution is a strong offense. First, identify and control sources of pollution to reduce and prevent indoor air contamination. This can range from changing housecleaning products to airing out freshly dry-cleaned clothing to tossing out formaldehyde-containing furniture. Equally important is improving ventilation. Proper ventilation — the mixing of indoor air with outdoor air — can revitalize the air in your home and protect your health. 

Since cigarette smoke is one of the single greatest contributors to indoor air pollution, smoking indoors is a no-no. Similarly, fireplaces and other fuel-burning appliances (water heaters, furnaces, stoves, etc.) should be properly adjusted and vented to the exterior. Doing so will both prevent carbon monoxide poisoning and improve the efficiency of the appliance. 

Adequately sized exhaust fans should be used wherever moisture and combustion are present in the bathroom, laundry and kitchen. A bath fan, for example, will help to dissipate chloroform gas, which is a byproduct of chlorinated water. It also will remove excessive moisture that can lead to mold which can produce yet more health hazards. 

There are other indoor air pollutants that deserve your attention, such as asbestos, lead and radon. The first two were used pervasively in building products before being outlawed by the EPA in the late 1970s. The rule of thumb with asbestos and lead is that it is best left alone if it in good shape and not peeling or crumbling. Asbestos or lead should not be scraped or sanded and should be removed only by a professional abatement contractor with the proper equipment. Moreover, testing should be performed after the abatement process to ensure the air quality is safe. 

Radon, on the other hand, is a naturally occurring gas that is derived from uranium in the ground. Radon can make its way into a home through cracks in foundation or basement walls. Small amounts of radon can be controlled by sealing cracks with a caulking or patching compound. Higher levels might require the installation of an exhaust system to disperse concentrated amounts into outdoor air. 

Do-it-yourself test kits are available for many indoor air pollutants such as lead or radon. Other indoor pollutants such as asbestos require professional testing. In either case, if you haven’t or someone in your family hasn’t been feeling up to snuff, or if you suspect that your home contains more than its share of pollutants, we suggest that you have your home tested by a pro. 

For more information on indoor air pollution and what to do about it visit the EPA Web site at www.epa.gov or the American Lung Association Web site at www.lungusa.org. 

For more home improvement tips and information visit our Web site at www.onthehouse.com.

SAN FRANCISCO — PG&E Corp. said Thursday that it might have improperly kept several complex deals off its books, making the power company the latest industry giant to own up to an accounting slip-up following the Enron Corp. scandal. 

The potential problems prompted San Francisco-based PG&E to postpone its scheduled fourth-quarter earnings announcement and raised the specter of the accounting debacle that destroyed Enron, once the nation’s largest energy trader. 

PG&E warned it might revise its financial statements dating back to 1999, but stressed the changes won’t have a major impact on its earnings or its shareholders’ equity. 

The company also sought to distance its off-the-book deals from the murky partnerships that ruined Enron. PG&E said details about all the deals had been outlined in its corporate annual report last year and a Securities Exchange and Commission filing made six months ago by one of its unregulated businesses, the National Energy Group. 

PG&E’s assurances appeared to satisfy the stock market. The company’s shares fell 59 cents to close at $20 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

The stock market is demanding more straightforward accounting from companies to minimize the chances of rude shocks like the one Enron delivered late last year when it acknowledged that it had overstated its past profits by $586 million. 

The pressure has prompted companies to pore through their financial statements for potential trouble. “Every company wants to make sure they have all their ducks in a row before announcing earnings now,” said analyst Carol Coale of Prudential Securities. 

With Enron’s collapse looming in the background, power companies are under the greatest scrutiny. Two other industry giants, Williams Cos. and Reliant Energy Inc., also have delayed their fourth-quarter earnings so they can re-evaluate the way they accounted for certain deals. 

PG&E faces even more daunting issues than questions about its accounting practices. The company’s main source of revenue, Northern California utility Pacific Gas and Electric, remains stuck in a bankruptcy case initiated 10 months ago and state regulators are trying to block its plan for reorganization. 

PG&E’s accounting headache revolves around the company’s approach to building power plants in Connecticut, California and Arizona, as well as the way it obtained some of its power-generating equipment. 

As part of these deals, PG&E formed trusts with other unidentified partners and created “synthetic” leases that allowed the deals to remain off the company’s books. 

For the deals to remain off PG&E’s balance sheet, the other partners have to maintain a 3 percent stake in the trusts, a condition that might have been breached because of “technical” issues, the company said. 

PG&E accountants and the company’s outside auditor, Deloitte & Touche, raised red flags about the deals Wednesday night during a final review of the fourth-quarter financial statements, said PG&E spokesman Brian Hertzog. 

If a more detailed review concludes the leases need to be reclassified, PG&E said it will change financial statements during the previous three years and record the deals on its balance sheet. The revisions might add an additional $1 billion in assets and liabilities to PG&E’s books. 

The possible changes won’t erode PG&E’s profits because the deals are regarded as capital leases, an accounting item that doesn’t affect income. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.pgecorp.com 

LOS ANGELES — Boeing Co. said Thursday it will lay off about 1,000 people from its satellite manufacturing arm in Southern California as it restructures to deal with tough competition in the uncertain economy. 

The announcement came four months after Boeing cut 400 other jobs at the satellite division because of the slowing economy. 

The Chicago-based company has slashed more than 15,000 jobs nationwide and plans to cut as many as 30,000 jobs by mid-year, most of them from its Seattle-based Commercial Airplanes division. The layoffs announced here Thursday are not part of the 30,000 previously announced. 

The new round of cuts include reductions in manufacturing and support staff along with some engineering positions at Boeing facilities in El Segundo and Torrance, said company spokesman George Torres. 

“We are restructuring in general to be more competitive in a very tough market,” he said. 

Boeing acquired the satellite business, which employs about 9,200 people, last year. The unit is the world’s largest producer of satellites for military and commercial markets. 

The weak economy has slowed orders from commercial customers, Torres said. 

The struggling telecommunications industry saw a number of companies such as Lucent Technologies Inc. and Global Crossing Ltd. falter financially. 

Many of those companies were looking to use satellites to help build global wireless communication systems and space-based broadband systems for the Internet. 

“They (Boeing) have been building a satellite a month for a long time, but they’re looking at the future. They’re not seeing the kind of orders they’ve had,” said Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst with the aerospace research firm the Teal Group, 

Boeing hopes the final cuts in Southern California will involve no more than 700 people through efforts to reassign workers to 350 current openings and encourage others to retire early, Torres said. 

But getting a transfer can be tough. 

“When you try to match skills with other parts of Boeing, most of the openings are on the engineering side,” he said. “There aren’t as many in manufacturing.” 

Torres said Boeing remains committed to expanding its satellite business. 

The company intends to proceed with plans for a 35,000-square-feet addition to its El Segundo satellite factory and continue pursuing new military business that could create about 1,300 new jobs by 2005. 

It is also on track to build 12 global positioning satellites for the U.S. Air Force in the fourth quarter of 2002. 

LOS ANGELES — A group of Global Crossing Ltd. shareholders intends to file an alternative rescue plan Friday for the telecom network firm that would save investors’ holdings and kick out many of the top executives. 

The company detailed a bankruptcy plan Jan. 28 under which it confirmed shareholders will likely receive nothing. 

The shareholder group, which is led by Coburn Meredith, a small investment firm in Hartford, Conn., and includes a grass-roots collection of individual investors, intends to file its bid with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. 

The proposal involves raising about $1 billion by issuing warrants that would guarantee holders the right to buy Global Crossing shares at a set price in the future, sources familiar with the bid said. Coburn Meredith faces a quiet period until the filing. 

Lawyers for the group will try to convince Judge Robert Gerber that there would be sufficient demand for the warrants. 

Several independent experts called the effort extremely unusual. They expressed doubt the plan would succeed, saying bankruptcy law favors a company and its creditors and that few investors are likely to bet more money on Global Crossing. 

“This company is very far gone. I don’t see any ability to raise equity capital,” said Harry DeAngelo, professor of finance at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. 

Although the shareholders are not trying to buy out Global Crossing, they do want to gain control of the majority of seats on the board. 

John Schmidt, a spokesman for Global Crossing, said the company was not aware of the shareholders’ efforts but is obligated to consider other offers. 

As part of Global Crossing’s own bankruptcy plan, two Asian firms would receive 79 percent of the company in return for investing $750 million. Creditors would jointly own 21 percent and receive $300 million in return for forgiving about $12.4 billion of debt. A court hearing on the sale procedures is scheduled for March 7. 

It isn’t clear how much shareholder who support the plan will receive, but many shareholders interviewed said they still believe Global Crossing’s fiber optic network linking 27 countries is a winning investment. 

They said the assets had been mismanaged by a team of executives who misled investors. 

“They would not have that network without the shareholders,” said Diana Conley, an investor in Houston, Texas, who spent about $9,000 buying shares during the last year. 

“This is a public company. They have no right to treat us like a personal piggy bank. The shareholders own the company, although (chairman) Gary Winnick may act like he owns it,” said Jay Province of Charlottesville, S.C. 

The 44 year-old Web developer said he invested $25,000 in Global Crossing last September as part of a plan to save for his two children’s university education. 

A common complaint among shareholders is that even though they knew the risks of investing in telecommunications, they never knew ahead of time that Global Crossing was bolstering revenues by swapping network capacity with its own customers. 

An internal letter by Global Crossing’s vice president of finance in August said the practice needed to be investigated because it appeared to intentionally mislead investors. 

Global Crossing never made the concerns of Roy Olofson public and didn’t inform its auditors until late January. Schmidt said the company adheres to all generally accepted accounting principles and determined an investigation was not merited. 

But shareholders said they would not have invested if they had the information. 

“If I’d known, absolutely I would have gotten out,” said Gene Ray, a retired pastor in Miami who invested about $200,000 in Global Crossing over a two-year period ending last October. 

Some said they invested after comments in the fall by John Legere, the company’s new chief executive, that the firm was fully funded through 2002 and that bankruptcy was not a possibility. 

“We can’t make intelligent investment decisions based on lies,” Conley said. 

Schmidt responded that the company tells shareholders what it knows to be true at the time. 

The shareholders also expressed doubt that regulators and any amount of new laws can prevent future flameouts like Global Crossing. Instead, they say shareholders have to exert more control over the executives who are managing their investments. 

Global Crossing will be a crucial test case, said Province. 

“I really want to fuel the fire and get people motivated. Otherwise we’re going to have falling capital markets and a lot of angry people,” he said. 

Some independent experts agree that the collapse of large, seemingly well-run firms like Global Crossing and Enron Corp. will undermine the stock market unless shareholder confidence is protected. 

“There’s a risk here that there could be a long-term impact if enough investors become unwilling to invest,” said Christine Rosen, professor of business history at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Parents at City of Franklin Microsociety Magnet School said they will strongly oppose the proposed closure of the school, and criticized Superintendent Michele Lawrence for recommending the move without parental input, during a series of interviews with the Daily Planet Wednesday. 

Teachers were more sympathetic to Lawrence, who is operating in the midst of a budget crisis, but said the district would be splintering a tight-knit community and eliminating an innovative school model if it closed City of Franklin. 

The 3-year-old, K-6 school is modeled after a small city, with students serving as politicians, local officials and businesspeople. 

Lawrence has proposed the closure of City of Franklin as part of an initial, $3 million wave of cuts in next year’s budget. The Board of Education, which will vote on Lawrence’s proposal next week, must chop a total of $6 million by year’s end. 

Kim Stanton, parent of two students at City of Franklin, said she found out about the proposed school closure through newspaper accounts. 

“There wasn’t any process,” Stanton said. “They should have allowed all of us to voice our opinions.” 

Lawrence was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but has argued in recent weeks that because the district did not know the extent of its fiscal woes until January, her administration has been forced to move quickly and has not been able to solicit the public input it would like. 

“Ideally, we should have gone through the process,” said school board Vice President Joaquin Rivera, echoing Lawrence. “But, because of the timing and the urgency here, we really need to make these cuts quite soon.” 

Lawrence and members of the school board have made two arguments for the closure of City of Franklin, which would save the district an estimated $326,000. First, they say the school is under-enrolled and too costly to operate, and second, they say it is racially imbalanced. 

According to district figures, the school has about 190 students enrolled, compared to 330 in the nearby Jefferson School. The district has been unable to boost enrollment at City of Franklin through normal placements because the school operates a magnet program, and can only accept students who apply to attend. 

District figures also show that the school is 59 percent African-American, 3 percent white, and 38 percent “other.” The district-wide average for elementary schools is 35 percent African-American, 25 percent white and 40 percent “other.” The “other” category includes Latinos, Filipinos, Asians, Native Americans and mixed-race individuals. 

Stanton argues that, while the school may not have many white students, it is still diverse.  

“We’re not black and white. But we’re black, white, Hispanic, and Indian,” she said. “Let’s get into the twenty-first century.”  

“The truth is, we want all our schools to reflect the diversity in the district,” Rivera responded. “Part of that diversity is white students.” 

Several students at the school were sensitive to the racial issue, raising it with a reporter unsolicited.  

“I think it’s not our fault if not enough white kids come here,” said Latranae Rush, a fourth grader. 

“They are just judging us because of the color of our skin,” added Yoneko Morillo, a fourth grader. 

Jean Townsend, parent of a sixth-grader, argued that the school needs more than three years to boost enrollment and establish itself.  

“We’re not giving it a chance,” she said. “You’re smashing it before it even comes out of conception.” 

Board member John Selawsky said it is difficult to judge whether the school has had adequate time to build enrollment, but argued that the district may not have the luxury of granting the school more time in the midst of a financial crisis. 

Cheri Hinkley, a first- and second-grade teacher at City of Franklin, said the district would lose a precious asset if it closed the school. 

“A lot of hard work has been put into the school and it’s a very interesting, innovative model,” she said. “I’m very sorry to see this sort of innovation being knocked down.” 

Marissa Saunders, parent of a fifth-grader, said the school teaches practical skills through its unique model. Saunders said her daughter, who campaigned and served as a treasurer in the school’s mock government, learned everything from public speaking to math skills through the experience. 

“These are all real world things,” said Saunders, who added that she is nervous about sending her daughter to one of the district’s other middle schools. 

Todd Marsden, a first-grade teacher at City of Franklin, said he is most worried about the disruption to students’ lives if the school is closed. 

“The children, they have a community here, a sense of belonging.” he said. “To have that taken away from them is a horrible thing, at least in the short term.” 

Marsden said, as compensation, the district should offer City of Franklin students first choice of schools next year. Board members reached Wednesday were receptive to the idea, but suggested that space and racial balance issues at other schools would have to be taken into account. 

Parents said they planned to attend last night’s board meeting and voice their concerns. The meeting was scheduled to take place after the Planet’s deadline.  

Dave Guest made five of six penalty kicks and the Bears held the visiting University of Victoria men’s rugby team to one try on Wednesday as Cal won 27-7 at Witter Field. 

Guest, a senior, also nailed a conversion to total 17 points on the day. Cal’s two tries were scored by wing Eric Andersen and reserve forward Justin Parkhurst. 

Wednesday’s game was the first of Cal’s series against the two top Canadian collegiate teams. The Bears will face University of British Columbia on Saturday, then travel to Canada later this year to face the two teams on their home turf. 

The Canadian teams are currently in the middle of their season, but the Bears have been practicing for just six weeks. Although his team blew through their first six games against U.S. opponents by an average of 63 points, Cal head coach Jack Clark was surprised how handily the Bears won against stiffer competition. 

“I don’t think anyone would have expected a 20-point victory today,” Clark said. “It’s not a bad result for six weeks of training.” 

Guest kicked off the scoring early, nailing his first penalty kick just three minutes into the match. The Vikings put their solid kicking game to work early, attacking down Cal’s flanks with counters. Victoria wing Akio Tyler punched a kick through the Cal backline and nearly scored, fumbling the ball near the goal line. The Bears came close on a grubber of their own, with Guest slotting the ball through the Vikings, but center Mark Verlatti couldn’t corral the ball and committed a knock-on. 

Cal did manage to get the ball into the try zone after 20 minutes. A sloppy pass in the backline ended up on the ground, but it bounced right into Andersen’s hands. The senior hit a gaping hole in the Viking backline, then juked fullback Charles Baumberg on his way to a 40-yard try. Guest hit an easy conversion kick to give the Bears a 10-0 lead. 

Victoria answered right back with their only score of the game. With the Bears deep in their territory, the Vikings forced a turnover. Rather than kick out of trouble, they went on the attack, going through several phases before Tyler broke through the line. After 50 yards he dumped the ball to hooker Mark Lawson, who got the last Cal defender to bite on a fake pass before touching the ball down for a try. Ed Fairhurst made the conversion to bring the Vikings within 10-7, but that was the last time they would score against the stiff Cal defense. 

“We defended our goal well,” Clark said. “They got close a few times, but we stiffened and responded.” 

Guest gave the Bears a 13-7 halftime lead with another penalty kick at the 30-minute mark, then made three more in the first 30 minutes of the second half for a 22-7 advantage. The Bears put the game away with a try from Parkhurst with just four minutes left in the game. Guest put a penalty kick within three yards of the try zone, and the Bears’ pack won the ensuing lineout and pushed over the line, with Parkhurst diving into the try zone under two defenders. 

Wednesday’s game marked the return of Cal fullback Kyle Khasigian, who missed the team’s first six games with a hamstring injury. WIth his backline complete, Clark said he was fairly happy with the team’s play. 

“I’m pleased with the backline’s play today,” he said. “They made good decisions, which is the main thing. I think we left a try unscored, but Kyle played near-flawlessly.” 

The Bears will take on University of British Columbia at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Witter Field.

Editor: 

In his open letter to Mayor Dean, Sedge Thomson wittily (he seems to think) sets forth all sorts of things about how the city dumps overwhelming traffic burdens into his part of town. In his view, the Willard and Bateman neighborhoods are being “trod upon,” and that nefarious machinations at the Planning and Traffic Departments will cause conditions to worsen further. He also depicts “the lesser Elmwood” as being absolutely choked to death by a never ending stream of speeding cars and their exhaust fumes. 

I invite Mr. Thomson to back up his scenarios of disproportionate traffic burdens in the two aforementioned neighborhoods with some traffic count figures. I doubt that he’ll be able to elicit much sympathy from the people who live on Ashby/Tunnel, the Warring/Belrose Corridor (both with over 20,000 cars per day!), or other basically residential Berkeley streets that have the misfortune of serving as major thoroughfares. 

Doris Willingham 

Berkeley

Thursday, Feb. 21

Barbara Lee 

8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

145 Dwinelle Hall 

Rep. Barbara Lee will be on campus. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club and the Center on Politics. 642-9355, www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Purim Lecture 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Discover the deeper meaning of Purim as Rabbi Alexander Sheinfeld uses the lens of Kabbalah to explore what Purim has to do with being Jewish and with being human. $10, $8 members. 848-0237 x127 

Zimbabwe Wildlife 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Julie Edwards of Rhino Girl Safaris gives a slide presentation showcasing Zimbabwe’s remarkable variety of birds and mammals, and discusses the future of wildlife and the safari industry in Africa. 527-7377 

Travel Photography Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

An intensive workshop that focuses on travel photography, with an emphasis on film and equipment security, light and weather conditions, methods to make the most of well-known sites, and ways to approach and photograph strangers. $15. 843-3533 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

“TV and Media” – Several people who have given up their TVs will talk about the difficulties and benefits. 549-3509, www.seeds of simplicity.org. 

Take the Terror Out of Talking 

noon - 1:10 p.m. 

Calif. Dept. Health Services 

2151 Berkeley Way 

Room 804 

State Health Toastmasters Club is presenting a six-week Speechcraft workshop to help you overcome your fear of speaking in public and improve your communication skills. Cost is $36 for six sessions, Feb. 21, 28 & March 7, 14, 21. 649-7750. 

Friday, Feb. 22

Grand Canyon Splendor: Rafting the Colorado 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author and former river guide, Tyler Williams, presents the dramatic beauty of the Grand Canyon in his slide presentation on rafting the Colorado. 527-7377 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Short stories. 232-1351. 

Saturday, Feb. 23

Archaeological Institute of America 

3 p.m. 

Shorb House 

2547 Channing Way 

Lecture by Dr. Stuart Swiny discussing Cypriot rituals surrounding fertility, life and death from the Neolithic to the Roman era. 415-338-1537, barbaram@sfsu.edu. 

Paying for Public Education: 

Whose Job Is It? 

3 - 5:30 p.m. 

Ocean View Elementary School 

Multi-Purpose Room 

1000 Jackson St., Albany 

A forum with Kevin Gordon of the Education Coalition, who will explain state-level funding for K-12 schools. Candidates for the California Assembly 14th District seat debate: Dave Brown (D), Loni Hancock (D), and Charles Ramsey (D). 524-7004, hao_kco@pacbell.net.  

Monday, Feb. 25

A Rose Grew in Brooklyn: Stories from a Jewish Girlhood 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Local author and therapist, Rose Fox reads from her memoir. 

Institute of Government Studies 

12 p.m. 

119 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

John Matsasuka presents a lecture entitled “For the Many or the Few: How the Initiative Process Changes American Government”. 642-4608, www.igs.berkeley.edu 

U. S. Nuclear Weapons Program 

9 p.m. 

Wesley Student Center  

2398 Bancroft Way 

Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs, speaks on the U.S. nuclear weapons program, including new, mini-nukes, plutonium shipments to Livermore Lab., the National Ignition Facility project, recent law suits filed against the government. 527-2057.  

Parkinson’s Support Group 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1801 Hearst Ave. 

A support group for people with Parkinson’s, their families and caregivers.  

527-9075. 

Tuesday, Feb. 26

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

The Legal Challenges of Parenting Facing LGBT Couples 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Room 100 

An informal wine and cheese reception will follow the panel discussion. 415-551-1275, boaltcaucus@yahoo.com. 

Berkeley Organization for  

Animal Advocacy Presents:  

Dr. Ned C. Buyukmihci 

7 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

204 Wheeler Hall 

Buyukmihci will speak about the ethical dangers of animal experimentation. 925-487-4419, http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~boaa/. 

Wednesday, Feb. 27

Berkeley Gray Panthers 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Defending and improving Medicare. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com.  

Berkeley Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Auditorium 

Berkeley mental health clinic. 644-8562. 

Poetry Workshop 

5:30 - 7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley Art Center 

1275 Walnut St. 

The Literary Arts Program at the Berkeley Art Center is starting a weekly, 3 month poetry workshop facilitated by Rob Lipton. All levels welcome. 665-1662. 

Thursday, Feb. 28

Cody's Evening for Parents and Teachers 

7 p.m. 

Cody's Books 

1730 Fourth St. 

Rosemary Wells, children's author of dozens of books including Max and Ruby and Noisy Nora, will discuss children, books, and the importance of reading to your children. 527-6667, www.parentsnet.org. 

Trekking in Bhutan 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Seasoned traveler, Ruther Anne Kocour will share slides and stories of her adventures trekking in this majestic country. 527-7377 

Take the Terror Out of Talking 

noon - 1:10 p.m. 

Calif. Dept. Health Services 

2151 Berkeley Way 

Room 804 

State Health Toastmasters Club is presenting a six-week Speechcraft workshop to help you overcome your fear of speaking in public and improve your communication skills. Cost is $36 for six sessions, Feb. 28 & March 7, 14, 21. 649-7750. 

The Writing Life 

4:30 p.m. 

North Branch Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Peter S. Beagle will discuss his works and the life and times of a professional writer. 649-3913, www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Photographing the Famous 

7:30 p.m. 

College Preparatory School Auditorium 

1600 Broadway, Oakland 

Michael Collopy will talk about photographing the famous (Mother Teresa, Frank Sinatra, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela).  

Friday, March 1

Tropical Trees and Sustainable  

Development in West Africa  

3 - 5 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

103 Mulford Hall 

Roger Leakey of James Cook University, Australia will present some of his recent work on developing indigenous fruit and nut trees to produce marketable products beneficial to resource-poor rural and peri-urban households in West Africa. Discussion and Q&A. 643-4200, http://cnr.berkeley.edu/BeahrsELP. 

Michael Lehet, a 22-year-old UC Berkeley student, devoured a package of crackers as he explained why he isn’t a registered voter. Tuesday was the registration deadline for anyone hoping to vote in the March 5 primary election, but Lehet stood inside Sproul Hall, looking at the rain. Elections failed to interest him. 

“I’m an out-of-state student,” said Lehet, a fifth-year student majoring in molecular cell biology who will be going to attending law school in the fall. “I think you can register to vote even if you’re out-of-state, but I haven’t yet.”  

Nor has he voted at home. 

Members of Associated Students of the University of California, Cal Democrats, and staff from the Loni Hancock for State Assembly office organized a last-minute on-campus registration drive Tuesday to encourage students like Lehet to fill out voter registration forms. Rain canceled plans to set up a table at Sproul Plaza, so five or six volunteers prowled campus cafes and restaurants looking for unregistered students. 

Wally Adeyemo, president of the ASUC, helped organize the drive to ensure campus voices are heard in city affairs, especially those that directly affect students. His group estimates that 23 percent of Berkeley’s more than 71,000 registered voters are students – that means Cal has upwards of another 14,000 potential voters. 

“Safety on the south side of campus is a major concern,” Adeyemo said. “The students in Piedmont want lighting. All over campus there are people who are concerned about city issues.” 

Students said Tuesday they feel politicians often give them and education issues short shrift. Eric Molina, a 22-year-old English major, said Cal now has more than 34,000 students on campus, and it’s only fair they have a say in city issues. 

“Walls were duct-taped together at my high school,” said Molina, a Danville native. “The school textbooks were 30 years old. So when I vote, education is my main concern.” 

Molina, who is registered, said though he isn’t planning to vote in the upcoming election he goes to the polls for issues that are important to him 

Omar Khan, a 22-year-old political economy major, said education was the main issue drawing him to the March 5 polls. He’s angry with Gov. Gray Davis about proposed cuts in education spending, and he may vote for one of the other gubernatorial candidates. 

“I’ll just have to see where the others stand,” Khan said. 

He agreed that UC students are politically aware and active, and deserve more representation on the City Council. 

Students are working to influence the city’s redistricting plan so that at least one of its eight districts has a student majority. Every 10 years district boundaries are redrawn to reflect population growth patterns, and Josh Fryday, a member of the ASUC, and others have submitted redistricting proposals to the city council.  

The City Council held a public hearing Tuesday to discuss redistricting proposals and will host another on Feb. 26. Students met several times with council members to discuss redistricting plans. 

Not everyone on campus seems to care about the outcome of those meetings. A half-dozen students said Tuesday they don’t follow local politics or vote. Some said they’re too busy, others said they’re not interested in politics. 

“Most people don’t know there’s an election,” said Patrick Campbell, a former ASUC president who now works for the Loni Hancock campaign. “It’s not like there’s an exciting election or a controversial proposition.” 

Campbell said getting people to the polls in early spring, or in November during a non-presidential ballot, has always been difficult. 

But Adriana Martinez, a 22-year-old political science major at San Jose State University, said students now want to have a voice in politics. While visiting the UC Berkeley campus Tuesday, Martinez said the events of Sept. 11 have created a more politically-aware students. 

“I think most people in our generation are looking for change,” Martinez said. “They are very aware, and want to vote.” 

Editor: 

Perhaps Gov. Davis should come to our fair city and explain his justification for a $6 million cut in Berkeley schools. And maybe that town meeting could be held at City of Franklin School.  

This would give the governor a chance to show us how his Enron campaign contributions and wise energy policy have reaped economic and infrastructural benefits for Berkeley families with school aged children.  

At the same time Gov. Davis can explain how he is “working hard” to protect the state of california's credit rating after hitching it to the Enron wagon. The governor could also show how closing COF will “save” over $3 million during the next 10 years. While he is at it, the governor could run the numbers for us on how other school closings in California will give the state’s creditors a couple of hundred million more over the next 10 years.  

I think it would do the governor’s re-election campaign a lot of good to hold this meeting at COF school because it is pre-dominantly African American.  

Oh wait! What was I thinking?!?  

Maybe this isn't such a good idea. After all, COF school isn’t predominantly African American. It’s “racially unbalanced” as Superintendent Lawrence and some unnamed board members call it, according to Planet reporter David Schnarfenberg.  

And according to Board member Ted Schultz COF isn’t “running properly” either.  

Scratch the meeting idea. We wouldn’t want to embarass the governor.  

On second thought, let’s just get on with the rubber stamping the governor’s cuts and taking pride in Berkeley’s tradition of “racially balanced” (white?) political thinking.  

Anthony Chavez  

Berkeley

Two programs on BTV channel 25 depicting “sexually explicit” material has sparked a free speech debate that may in fact put some of the channel’s funding in jeopardy. 

“Unlimited Possibilities” and the “Dr. Susan Block Show” both contain the questionable material, and Frank Moore, the programs’ producer said the shows are “on the chopping block” because of citizen complaints.  

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting Councilmember Betty Olds asked that complaints made by Berkeley resident Charles Haltman regarding objectionable material shown on the publicly run station be discussed and dealt with as soon as possible. 

Moore said he is protected by a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said public access programming is protected free speech and the safe harbor for adult material is between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.  

Last January the board of directors of Berkeley Community Media voted to restrict “sexually explicit” shows to air between 2 and 4 a.m.  

The restriction was ordered because of citizen complaints, Moore said. 

He also said that the time slot restriction censors his right to free speech, by virtually eliminating his audience. 

Berkeley Community Media Executive Director Brian Scott, said he was assigned the task of watching tapes of both shows to determine if they contained “obscene or sexually explicit material.”  

Scott said neither shows contained such material. 

At Scott’s recommendation the station later rescinded the time restrictions The decision to only show the programs between 2 and 4 a.m. was rescinded until the board could “inform itself of what the legal picture is,” said board member Chuck Miller.  

With the shows back on the air, complaints have begin to resurface. 

“The first action was an effort to come up with a policy acceptable to both sides, and it turns it out it was not. The people who were offended by the content are still offended. The people who feel the show should be aired, still feel that way,” Miller said. 

Scott said the dilemma facing the channel is the same dilemma that always faces free speech. 

“The danger is that somebody complains to the city council and the program is censored. If you censor one show, you eliminate public access television,” Scott said. 

But the City Council is not obligated to fund BCM. And Scott fears they will vote to eliminate funding for the public access channel. 

“Disgusting,” Olds said. “It shouldn’t be allowed to be put on so that someone could stumble on it, and I’m no prude. I would be willing to forego having that channel (25). What I saw that woman do (Susan Block) I don’t think that was free speech. 

“I don’t think that’s right and I know that the majority of the citizens feel the same way,” Olds added. 

Scott said public access is for the community from the community and should be regulated by the community.  

If somebody wants to regulate programming they do so by contacting the District Attorney’s office or the FCC, in writing, with the time, date, and content of the program. This could result in an investigation of the program. Then the courts would rule if something was obscene. The problem is that nobody wants to go on record for censorship.  

According to the FCC, “In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court established the following criteria to determine whether speech is obscene: (1) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to prurient interest; (2) whether the work depicts or describes in a patently offensive way sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law; and (3) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. In 1978, the Court stated that whether the work could be deemed “patently offensive” would depend on context, degree and time of broadcast.  

“In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that cable operators may decline to carry indecent programming on leased access channels, but cannot exercise the same control over programming on public access channels.”  

Miller said he doubts the Susan Block show would be found obscene by a court. He added that one parent reported that their teen-ager saw the show, which provoked a conversation between the parent and teen-ager that proved useful.  

Contact reporter Guy Poole at guy@berkeleydailyplanet.net. 

Editor: 

In 1916, Berkeley’s Public Works Department completed construction of its new corporation yard on Allston Way. This early city project moved the existing maintenance yard, which at that time was little more than horse stables, from the north corner of University Avenue and Sacramento to its current site. The Public Works commissioner stated at the opening of the new yard, “We have made a beginning of which to be proud, and when completed, may well serve as a model for other cities.” Almost ninety years later, even after several major renovations in the early 30s, the 50s, and again in the late 1980s, those words and that vision have all faded away. Today, the yard is boxed in by residential neighborhoods, and is at capacity for operations and storage. Many of the yard’s problems won’t be corrected with just another makeover. Like a Trojan horse, the imminent upgrade of the corporation yard promises to open the door to a budgetary boondoggle, with millions of taxpayer dollars at stake, and more. 

Last Friday, the Public Works Department applied for a use permit to relocate the yard’s staff out of the old, single story structures and into portable office trailers. This move signals the beginning of the seismic upgrade of the site’s unreinforced masonry buildings. The cost to move the yard’s staff and to plug in the trailers is expected to reach half a million dollars, or more. However, no overall cost analysis for this retrofit has been made public. The city knows the seismic project is more than a simple posting up of the buildings so as to keep them from falling down on city employees. In the past, each of the yard’s major renovations has both added structures and expanded operations in order to meet the needs of the department. And today, that need has never been more pressing. 

The option to expand is being challenged by the area’s R2 zoning and the fact that the maintenance yard has become the largest non-conforming land use in Berkeley. Both the city’s General Plan and the yard’s Master Plan acknowledge the need to relocate, and not to expand at the Allston location. This message also has been echoed by residents who have publicly requested reductions in the yard’s activities, and specifically that the rock and gravel storage areas, as well as the yard’s fueling station, be moved to a more appropriately zoned site. All council reports evaluating the corporation yard in the last decade have reflected this same reality. The Public Works Department operations have simply outgrown the present site. 

Another serious barrier to the future expansion of the corporation yard is concern over landmark preservation. The centerpiece structure, the oldest on the five-acre site, was designed by Walter Radcliff, the city’s architect at the time. Unbelievably, it has never has been listed in any local or state Historic Resources Inventory. However, there is no question that the main administration building has need for landmark protection. The brick detail, wooden floors, and barn-like shop areas bring back the memory of those first days when a staff of 150 worked out of the yard, including a blacksmith. Some of the details of this rich history have already been destroyed by smaller capital projects at the yard, leaving only the Radcliff structure. Certainly any yard expansion should be limited because of this building’s landmark importance. It also physically partitions the site. Undoubtedly, this building will continue to be an obstacle to the yard’s modernization. 

Fix it, expand it, or move it. Those are the options, and each has its special cost for the Public Works Department, Berkeley taxpayers, and the surrounding neighborhoods. Though staff is reluctant to lay out the entire plan, our past experiences with cost overruns for seismic work done at the library, the public safety building, and the civic center, all confirm one thing. The corporation yard upgrade will ultimately cost two to three times more than originally estimated. Even a minimum investment in the site’s structures will cost several million dollars. A full-blown expansion will run six million dollars or more. If the city’s management of the project is factored in, the costs for the yard could reach up to fifteen million dollars, the projected cost of an entirely new facility. And with all costs being fairly equal, only a new location will meet the future operational needs of the department and the city. 

Moreover, Berkeley owns an ideal site at Harrison and Fifth streets where the city has begun construction of a park. With relativity little invested to date, the corporation yard should simply trade locations with the soccer fields and proposed transitional housing. This would put an end to all existing zoning conflicts at both sites. More importantly, it would give the Public Works Department a long overdue professional yard, something that will never be achieved at the yard’s current location, no matter how much money is poured into it. We can no longer afford to ignore the necessity of moving the corporation yard. 

Once again, hoping to fly under the radar of both neighbors and taxpayers, the yard’s renovation is being offered up in a piecemeal style. Public Works is now saying that it is merely fixing the yard while actually preparing the site for another expansion. The first phase of the capital project, in addition to the modular trailers, involves the removal of several sheds and buildings. Phase two of the seismic retrofit will involve new construction. This stealth project, like the last one offered to residents in 1987, needs to be revealed for what it really is. In ‘87, a “fix it” plan was packaged to disguise the facility’s second phase construction of a fueling station from the area’s residents. Imagine the neighbors’ surprise upon waking up one morning to find that the city had relocated its fueling station within 60 feet from their homes on Bancroft Way. Certainly the neighbors of the city’s most recent project, the communication tower on the new public safety building, understand this reality. 

Historically at the corporation yard, the city, as developer, has always played the bully. The Public Works Department has avoided the scrutiny of permits, honest environmental reviews, and a fair public process. For the benefit of area neighbors and local taxpayers, let’s have all the cards on the table! With so much at stake, Berkeley can not afford to miscalculate the needs of Public Works or the impacts of the corporation yard on the surrounding community. 

L A Wood  

Berkeley 

Alameda County is using the $20 million a year it receives from the Proposition 10 tobacco tax approved by voters in 1998 to improve the quality of life for children and families through the Every Child Counts program, part of the Children and Families Commission. 

Among other benefits, the program funds early health care and education programs for young children, offers family support services, and reduces exposure to tobacco and other harmful substances, according to Mark Friedman, executive director of the Alameda County Children and Families Commission.  

“We think there’s a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to make sure that we shepherd these resources as best we can,” Friedman said during his appearance Tuesday at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. “If we don’t do a good job with these resources, then we won’t get the opportunity again.” 

California voters approved Prop 10, the California Children and Families First Act of 1998, by a margin of 1 percent. It put a 50-cent, per-pack surtax on cigarettes and required the counties to use it for community health care services.  

Some $680 million a year is collected with 20 percent going to a statewide commission. The remaining 80 percent is divided among California’s 58 counties using a formula that takes into account birthrates and the number of smokers.  

While Alameda County gets $20 million, San Francisco gets $7 million and Santa Clara County, the largest in the Bay Area, gets $28 million. Marin, San Mateo, and Contra Costa counties receive amounts ranging from four to $13 million.  

Alameda County’s programs support caregivers, promote school readiness, and coordinate local, county and state services.  

Opponents of Proposition 10 have said that it takes money away from other health and human service programs. Friedman acknowledged that he has heard this complaint before. He said they were referring to Prop 99, an old tobacco tax, which levies a 25 cent tax that goes for education against tobacco use. Since the two taxes have dampened cigarette sales, he said, the money collected from Prop 99 has been reduced. Still, voters appear to support the newer tax. Efforts to repeal Prop 10, have failed.  

"However, the tobacco industry does not go away," Friedman warned.  

The State of California was named in three lawsuits regarding Prop 10, but thus far, the proposition is still alive. "We think Prop 10 is not be the most elegant way of providing those services, by having to tax tobacco and particularly hurt a lot of low income people who may be addicted to tobacco, but it’s the best vehicle we have right now," he said. 

"We’re not so arrogant to think that what we’ve designed here is the best way to do things, we just think it’s the best thing we can accomplish right now for children." 

Friedman’s talk was part of a series on issues that impact children and families sponsored by the Action Alliance for Children United Way of the Bay Area and Providian Financial. 

Today is Thursday, Feb. 21, the 52nd day of 2002. There are 313 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On Feb. 21, 1965, former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death in New York by assassins identified as Black Muslims. 

On this date: 

In 1878, the first telephone directory was issued, by the District Telephone Co. of New Haven, Conn. 

In 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated. 

In 1916, the World War I Battle of Verdun began in France. 

In 1925, The New Yorker magazine made its debut. 

In 1947, Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds. 

In 1972, President Nixon began his historic visit to China as he and his wife, Pat, arrived in Shanghai. 

In 1973, Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan Airlines jet over the Sinai Desert, killing more than 100 people. 

In 1986, Larry Wu-tai Chin, the first American found guilty of spying for China, killed himself in his Virginia jail cell. 

In 1995, Chicago stockbroker Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, landing in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada. 

In 2000, consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced his entry into the presidential race, bidding for the nomination of the Green Party. 

Ten years ago: Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States won the gold medal in ladies’ figure skating at the Albertville Olympics; Midori Ito of Japan won the silver, Nancy Kerrigan of the United States the bronze. John Frohnmayer announced his resignation as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Five years ago: Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr reversed his decision to resign. The space shuttle Discovery returned to earth after a mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. A bomb exploded at a gay and lesbian nightclub in Atlanta, injuring five people. 

One year ago: The Supreme Court ruled that state workers cannot use an important federal disability-rights law to win money damages for on-the-job discrimination. At the Grammy Awards, Steely Dan won album of the year for “Two Against Nature,” plus best pop album and best pop performance by a duo or group for “Cousin Dupree”; controversial rapper Eminem won three awards, all in rap categories. 

Today’s Birthdays: Fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy is 75. Movie director Bob Rafelson is 69. Singer Nina Simone is 69. Actor Gary Lockwood is 65. Actor-director Richard Beymer is 63. Actor Peter McEnery is 62. Recording executive David Geffen is 59. Actor Alan Rickman is 56. Actress Tyne Daly is 56. Tricia Nixon Cox is 56. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, is 55. Rock musician Jerry Harrison (The Heads) is 53. Actor William Petersen is 49. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 47. Country singer Mary-Chapin Carpenter is 44. Actor Jack Coleman is 44. Actor Christopher Atkins is 41. Rock singer Ranking Roger is 41. Actor William Baldwin is 39. Rock musician Michael Ward is 35. Blues musician Corey Harris is 33. Country singer Eric Heatherly is 32. Rock musician Eric Wilson (Sublime) is 32. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is 23. Singer Charlotte Church is 16.

SAN FRANCISCO — Popular online search engine maker Google Inc. is introducing a new program that allows Web sites to be displayed more prominently by paying more money — an advertising-driven system derided by critics as an invitation to deceptive business practices. 

Under a new feature launched Tuesday evening, the rankings of a search engine devoted to advertisers will be determined in part by how much Web sites offer to be listed in specific categories. 

The system lets Web sites raise their bids to increase their chances for higher placement on the section of Google’s site that’s devoted to sponsored links. 

Besides factoring in Web sites’ bids, Google’s ranking formula will consider how many times visitors click on the displayed links — a departure from other so-called “pay-for-placement” search engines. 

Mountain View-based Google will continue to reserve most of its site for results sorted by relevance to a search request — a model that has cultivated a local following among Web surfers and turned the 300-employee company into one of the Internet’s emerging power brokers. Google’s site, and the 130 other businesses that license its technology, handle about 150 million search requests each day. 

Except for a few twists, Google’s auction-style system mirrors a model used by a prosperous rival, Overture Services Inc. 

Pasadena-based Overture has emerged as one of the Internet’s biggest financial successes. During the final half of 2001, the company earned $29.7 million on revenue of $173.7 million and this year management projects a $58 million profit on revenue of $442 million. 

Privately held Google says it was profitable last year, but won’t disclose the results. The company’s revenue last year was about $60 million, estimated industry analyst Lanny Baker of Salomon Smith Barney. 

The pay-for-placement system has alienated some people. 

A consumer watchdog group last summer filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging the results generated by several pay-for-placement search engines represented a deceptive advertising practice. The FTC hasn’t publicly responded to the complaint. 

Commercial Alert, the watchdog group that filed the complaint, has applauded Google for distinguishing between its non-commercial search results and its advertising-supported results. 

Last month, Texas-based Mark Nutritional Inc. sued Overture and three other search engine companies. It alleged their advertising-driven sorting systems violated Mark Nutritional’s trademark on a weight-loss program called Body Solutions by allowing other businesses to buy listings under the phrase. 

Google plans to turn away companies trying to buy a listing under categories unrelated to their main business. For instance, Google already has refused advertising from credit card companies that tried to buy listings under the “Palm Pilot” category, said Omid Kordestani, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide sales and business development. 

Google also intends to maintain strong firewalls between the business and search sides of its operations. 

“We take our editorial integrity very seriously, just like a newspaper does,” Kordestani said. 

Google will display up to eight advertisers on the far right-hand side of its Web page under a shaded section labeled “sponsored links.” 

The company has been listing results from advertisers under a similar format since 2000, but it previously sold space under a fixed pricing system, which prevented sites from boosting their rankings with more money. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.google.com 

http://www.overture.com 

SAN JOSE — Much like the airline industry before Sept. 11, high-tech companies, customers and government agencies are well aware of security vulnerabilities but are reluctant to pay to fix them, President Bush’s top computer security adviser said Tuesday. 

It’s just a matter of time before terrorists use those flaws to launch a cyberspace equivalent of the Sept. 11 attacks on critical national infrastructure such as the electricity grid, said Richard Clarke, the Bush administration’s cyber security czar. 

“They will look for the seams. They will look to where our infrastructure is fragile,” he said during the RSA Conference, the world’s largest gathering of computer security experts. “Our infrastructure is fragile.” 

Clarke said the airlines had known for years about weaknesses in the industry’s security mechanisms but chose not to address them. There was no intelligence suggesting an attack might occur, and nobody wanted to shoulder the cost or risk inconveniencing passengers. 

“This industry runs the same risks as the aviation industry,” he said. “For years, people in the aviation industry knew there were security vulnerabilities — big ones. They convinced each other and themselves that those vulnerabilities would never be used against the industry or against the country.” 

After all, no hijackings had occurred for decades in the United States before Sept. 11. As a result, no one wanted to pay to explore how vulnerabilities might be exploited, he said. 

But the information technology industry must work quickly and not dwell on the past. Scenarios must be modeled and everyone — including government, businesses and other customers — must work together and share the costs. 

President Bush is proposing a large spending increase for computer and network security, from $2.7 billion in fiscal year 2002 to $4.2 billion in fiscal year 2003. 

RSA Conference organizers, who have been quick to criticize government security initiatives in previous years, agreed with Clarke’s comments and many of the new post-Sept. 11 measures. 

“Today, the threats to the critical infrastructure are no longer theoretical,” said Jim Bidzos, chairman of the one-week conference. 

Bruce Heiman, an attorney and executive director of Americans for Computer Privacy, also said he could not disagree with much of Clarke’s speech, but emphasized a balance must be struck between security and privacy. 

Clarke’s proposal for government-industry cooperation, for instance, could work well as long as it remains voluntary. Still, Heiman asked, what would happen in the aftermath of a real cyber attack? 

“If exhortation fails, regulation can’t be far behind,” he said. 

Despite the government’s voluntary approach so far, Heiman fears it could indirectly force technology standards on the industry if businesses cannot agree on their own. 

Heiman also questioned Clarke’s suggestion that the government form its own private network called GOVNET, allowing it to escape Internet problems. 

“Is that approach just throwing up your hands?” Heiman asked. “GOVNET says we can’t make it secure — we will just have our own system.” 

Clarke, who has served under every president since Ronald Reagan, was picked in October to advise the government and private businesses on cyber security issues. In his talk Tuesday, he said the government is a model of how not to address cyber security. 

Clarke also suggested moving away from connecting everything to the Internet. He said details of the nation’s air traffic control system could be made available to Web surfers in the Middle East. 

Unless action is taken soon, the information technology industry will suffer the same fate as the aviation industry, he said. 

“The vulnerabilities are too well known for someone not use them in a big way that make Nimda and Code Red look like small fries,” Clarke said of two worms, which last year tied up Internet traffic worldwide by exploiting well-known software vulnerabilities. 

——— 

On the Net: 

RSA Conference: http://www.rsaconference.net 

SACRAMENTO — Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill warned Wednesday that “the fiscal situation has deteriorated” and lawmakers must make deeper-than-expected budget cuts to lift the state from its financial straits. 

State officials must carve $5 billion more than planned from the current and next year’s budgets or the problem could snowball in the coming years, Hill said, delivering an in-depth review of Gov. Gray Davis’ 2002-03 budget proposal. 

“It’s going to be a very tough year,” said Assembly budget committee chairwoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach. 

Hill, the Legislature’s chief fiscal analyst, predicts a steeper dip in stock and capital gains revenues and steeper education costs than Davis. 

And she suggests dozens of solutions — including raising college tuition, mothballing a state women’s prison and scrapping one state holiday — to make up the difference. 

Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, issued a statement Wednesday calling Hill’s news “worse than I expected.” 

“It is clear we are going to have to make painful decisions about crucial state services,” Wesson said. “Everyone is going to have to bear the pain.” 

Hill offered more than 100 suggested budget cuts, including some potentially controversial moves. 

They include closing the Northern California Women’s facility in Stockton because of declining inmate population statewide; suspending Davis’ pet performance awards program for schools with test score improvements; and increasing students fees for out-of-state and professional students at the University of California. 

She also proposes a series of legislative changes to ease prison terms, including providing early parole for some nonviolent offenders and elderly inmates. 

Oropeza said each of Hill’s suggestions “will be seriously examined and evaluated.” 

Republican leaders immediately sought to blame Davis, a Democrat who is up for re-election this year. GOP lawmakers have accused Davis for months of failing to tackle California’s budget woes quickly enough and spending recklessly when times were good. 

“We warned that there would be a cliff that we would fall off, and we have,” said Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga. 

Davis has defended his budgeting, saying he pumped up the state’s reserves and made sorely needed improvements in education, transportation and children’s health. And he has said he will not advocate raising taxes to fill the budget hole. 

Davis’ budget chief Tim Gage said he had not fully reviewed the analyst’s report, but said, “certainly they raise an appropriate caution that revenues may well be down further.” 

However, he said, the state will not have a clear picture of its financial health until May, when the governor revises his budget based on more accurate revenue calculations. 

“We just don’t know at this point,” Gage said. 

Hill’s analysis means that the state now faces a $14.5 billion budget deficit over the next 16 months, even accounting for a package of cuts approved by lawmakers late last month. 

Here’s why: The state faced a $12.5 billion shortfall in January for the remainder of this fiscal year and the next, which begins July 1. Lawmakers approved in January more than $2 billion in midyear cuts to the current budget, which also translate to $900 million more in reductions to next year’s budget because of trims made to ongoing programs. 

That left the state still facing a $9.5 billion shortfall — which Davis proposed to fix with a combination of cuts, shuffling and borrowing. 

And, Hill estimates the state must add $5 billion more to that figure because, even if all of the governor’s remedies were adopted for the current and next year, the state still would come up short. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Hill’s analysis and proposed solutions are at http://www.lao.ca.gov. 

The governor’s budget proposal can be found at http://www.dof.ca.gov 

Parents have a rosier picture of small schools than teachers, according to a nationwide poll released Tuesday by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan public opinion agency based in New York. 

“Small school parents are considerably happier on issues ranging from academic performance to student alienation,” said Deborah Wadsworth, president of Public Agenda in a statement. “High school teachers, however, did not in many instances share a similarly positive reaction.” 

The poll, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, also found that teachers in large and small schools have equally dim views of teacher morale and student achievement. However, small schools teachers reported fewer problems with students dropping out or falling through the cracks. 

The poll re-ignited the local debate about dividing Berkeley High School into a series of wall-to-wall “small learning communities.”  

Kalima Rose, a parent activist who supports the move, focused on poll figures demonstrating that small schools parents are more satisfied with attentiveness to student needs.  

According to the survey, three quarters of small schools parents are confident that teachers identify and help struggling students, compared to less than half of large school parents. Fifty-five percent of large school parents reported problems with students falling through the cracks, compared with 30 percent of small schools parents. 

Rose said these figures reflected the opinions of parents at the handful of existing small schools at BHS.  

“Parents who have children in small learning communities feel like it’s easier to find teachers and sort out what’s happening with their children,” she said. 

School board President Shirley Issel, who voted last year to delay the consideration of the small schools proposal put forth by Rose and other activists, said the poll did point to certain small schools advantages. 

“Parents want to feel they have access to someone inside the school who knows their kid,” she said.  

But Issel focused on data from the teachers’ poll which showed little difference between small and large school teachers on several issues. 

Only 19 percent of small schools teachers and 18 percent of large school instructors reported high teacher morale. Likewise, only 19 percent of small school instructors and 21 percent of large school instructors say their students learn to speak and write well. 

“I think teachers are concerned with where they can be successful,” Issel argued. “They’re concerned with job satisfaction and effectiveness, and they’re saying size doesn’t matter.”  

“It isn’t just about small,” Rose replied. “The practices that go along with small are the key thing.” 

Rose said it is vital to give teachers more planning time and allow instructors from various disciplines to coordinate their work. 

She added that teachers should work in consortiums, sharing lesson plans and discussing how to meet the needs of students of varying ability. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence is scheduled to visit several small schools and report back to the school board on her findings this spring.  

When a team wins 11 straight national titles, it becomes apparent that the competition provided within the United States isn’t quite getting it done. That’s where the Cal men’s rugby team is: they haven’t been beaten by an American team since 1996 and routinely beat their domestic competition by 50 points or more. The answer: import tougher opponents. 

That’s what the Bears will face this week, when two Canadian teams come to town. The University of Victoria is up first today, with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Witter Field. The Bears will then face the University of British Columbia at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Cal will head to Canada for return matches in late March. 

The home-and-home set with Canada’s top college programs has become a tradition for Cal. British Columbia handed the Bears their only loss of last season, a 27-25 victory in Berkeley. 

“The Canadian games are definitely one of the high points of the year,” Cal prop forward Mike McDonald said. “The first set of games are especially tough, because we haven’t had enough time to really come together as a team yet.” 

The lack of cohesion hasn’t appeared to hurt the Bears so far this season. They have played six games, winning by an average margin of more than 63 points and breaking the 100-point barrier with a 103-5 win over New Mexico last weekend. Jack Clark, head coach of the Cal team for the past 19 seasons, thinks this year’s team could be the best yet. 

“We could be better than last year,” Clark said. “That’s not a prediction, because there’s certainly a lot we have to accomplish to measure up to last season. But the elements are there.” 

Clark has had unprecedented success in his time at Cal. With 14 national championships in 18 seasons, he has coached the Bears to a 307-54-4 overall record and sent scores of players on to the U.S. national team. But Clark is far from satisfied with his team’s accomplishments. 

“We’ve had pretty much a dream run as of late,” he said. “Intellectually I know it will end at some point, but emotionally we’re not ready to think 2002 might be the end.” 

While Clark’s teams haven’t had to deal with much adversity on the field, this offseason was a painful one for the program. Two former players were killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, former captain Mark Bingham and football player Brent Woodall. Then in late December, starter Dominic Cooke suffered serious injuries in a car accident, leaving him partially paralyzed. 

“It’s a huge blow,” McDonald said of Cooke’s accident. “It put a dark cloud over the team for a while. We were just in shock.” 

Although the Bears haven’t suffered much on the field, with Joel DiGiorgio taking over the halfback spot, Clark knows his players are dealing with bigger issues than winning games. 

“We have to let the feelings take their course. The players should have a range of emotions,” Clark said. “We’re certainly sad for Dominic, but it does make the little things in your life more important.” 

For players like McDonald, who lived with Cooke last year, focusing on playing the game is still important. While the team’s tradition is a bragging point, it also brings with it a lot of pressure. 

“We have a great tradition going, and no one wants to be the team that breaks the streak,” McDonald said.

In closed session yesterday the city sealed the lid on a possible lawsuit against University of California Berkeley’s plan to put a parking structure and offices on Berkeley’s southside. But perhaps more importantly, it sealed the details of that closed session meeting by further deciding not to report on it — disallowing councilmembers to speak about what took place behind closed doors.  

The proposed construction has been protested by residents living near the northeast quadrant of the campus, claiming the EIR originally drafted for the project failed to address important environmental impacts of the construction and the new buildings. 

Marie Felde, director of media relations for UC Berkeley, was unavailable yesterday but in the past has denied deficiencies in the EIR.  

University officials extended the public comment period well beyond state requirements Felde said. 

Keys a finalist for inaugural McDonald’s girls’ game 

Berkeley High senior Sabrina Keys has been selected as one of 100 finalists to play in the first-ever girls’ McDonald’s All-American basketball game. 

Diedra Chatman of Kennedy (Richmond) High was also named to the list of finalists. 

The final rosters for the game will be announced on Feb. 27, with the game scheduled for April 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 

BHS-Encinal matchup set for Hercules High 

The game between Berkeley High and ACCAL champion Encinal for the league’s automatic North Coast Section playoff berth will be played on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Hercules High. 

The Lady ‘Jackets were given “competitive anomaly” status before this season, allowing them to play each ACCAL opponent just once, with the games not counting in the league standings. 

The loser of the game may apply for an at-large berth to the NCS playoffs. 

Cal baseball rained out 

The baseball game between Cal and University of San Francisco scheduled for Tuesday afternoon was cancelled due to rain. The game, to be played at USF’s Benedetti Diamond, has been rescheduled for April 30 at 2 p.m.

Members of the Board of Education say they are poised to close City of Franklin School, lay off the security manager at Berkeley High School and move to a six-period day at BHS, endorsing many of the key budget cuts identified by Superintendent Michele Lawrence in a $3 million package released Friday. 

School board members were more ambivalent about proposed cuts to the school libraries, the reading recovery program, high school athletics, and the seven-period day at Longfellow middle school. 

The board will consider Lawrence’s $3 million budget cut proposal tonight and will vote on it Feb. 28. The board must cut a total of about $6 million to balance next year’s budget, and will likely rely upon heavy, district-wide layoffs to make up the difference. 

“Closing a school is probably one of the hardest decisions to make for a school district,” said school board member Terry Doran, discussing the City of Franklin closure, which would save the district an estimated $326,000. “On the other hand, it’s our smallest school. It’s not attracting people as much as we hoped and desired.” 

Lawrence and school board members have argued that the magnet school is underenrolled and has attracted a largely African-American population, making it racially unbalanced. 

City of Franklin advocates say the school should have more time to increase enrollment and diversify its student body. But school board members say the district cannot afford to keep the school open. 

“It’s too bad they don’t have two or three more years to get the school up and running properly,” said board member Ted Schultz. “But we’re in a budget pinch.” 

Board members also endorsed cutting BHS security manager Barry Wiggan, despite ongoing concerns about student safety on campus. Administrative duties would be handled by two recently-appointed “deans of discipline.” 

“I can see that working,” said board President Shirley Issel, discussing the shift of responsibility to the deans. 

“I think it’s great,” added Laura Menard, a parent who has long been critical of security operations at the high school. “I think the security personnel and plan need to be completely redesigned and redeveloped.”  

Wiggan declined to comment. 

Board members are also supportive of Lawrence’s proposal to hold BHS students, who in many cases take seven periods or more, to six periods, saving the district an estimated $520,000. 

Science teachers have raised concerns that the cap will eliminate a successful double-period science program. 

Lawrence has budgeted for 20 to 30 “flex periods” outside the normal day. The superintendent and members of the board have held out the possibility of using those periods for double-period science, but it appears increasingly unlikely that they will. 

Lawrence and Issel have suggested that many of the periods will be used for other activities, such as the student newspaper and leadership courses, and Doran said the program may be too expensive to retain. 

“Our science program probably offers the highest quality science education in the state, and it’s hard to dismantle that,” said Doran. “The question becomes, can we afford it at this time?” 

Rodney Kopish, a science teacher at BHS, said he was “very disappointed” by the possibility that flex time might not be used for double-period science. 

“Given the dismantling they want to do of our department,” he said, “you’d think they’d find a middle ground.” 

Lawrence has also proposed reducing by one level those high school sports that currently field three levels of teams – typically freshman, junior varsity and varsity – for a savings of $34,500. Doran said he hopes to keep the full sports program running.  

“I’m a strong supporter of the athletic program,” he said. “I think it’s a valuable tool – it helps keep students enrolled in the school.” 

Lawrence’s plan includes librarian layoffs at the middle school and high school levels. 

“We’re always the first ones to be chopped,” said Carole Bloomstein, librarian at Longfellow middle school, arguing that students would lose valuable literacy support if she were let go. 

But Lawrence and members of the school board have made it clear that, if they can find savings elsewhere, retaining librarians and reading recovery teachers, also on list, are top priorities. 

Schultz added that he will try to save the seven-period day at Longfellow middle school and at some point expand it to the other middle schools in the district. 

Lawrence estimates that eliminating the seventh period at Longfellow would save the district $221,000.  

Los Angeles — Speaking at the state Democratic convention this weekend, Gov. Gray Davis praised himself and attacked GOP opponents as uninspired and driven by corporate interests, in what many observers called the unofficial beginning of Davis’ bid for re-election. 

“You can’t lead this state of 34 million people with old ideas and vague generalities,” Davis told the more than 2,500 assembled Democratic delegates. “All three support full energy deregulation. All three believe we should trust the energy companies and the free market to solve all of our energy problems.” 

Hitting a note of toughness that is sure to be one of the hallmarks of Davis’ re-election campaign, the governor warned.  

“In case my opponents were asleep while we were being gouged by generators and ignored by federal regulators, here’s a wake-up call: California will return to its disastrous deregulation scheme over this governor’s dead body.”  

Unlike the rest of the speakers, who, when faced with a Republican president whose approval ratings hover in mid 80th percentile, opted to attack Enron, Davis’ speech had no mention of the bankrupted energy giant. Davis has been criticized for accepting more than a $119,000 in campaign contributions from the Houston-based Enron.  

Davis concentrated instead on his administration’s accomplishments. Citing an increase in nurse-to-patient ratios, an expanded health-care system for needy children and the working poor, and the strongest domestic partnership laws in the nation, Davis boasted that California was a better place now than it was when he entered office.  

“Four years ago, I promised you that California would be stronger, kinder and better now than it was then,” Davis told the cheering delegates. “I have delivered on that promise.”  

Davis will face the victor of the March 5 GOP primary between former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, California Secretary of State Bill Jones, and businessman Bill Simon.  

In a poll conducted January 29 by the Los Angeles Times, Davis was shown to be in a dead heat with Riordan. 

At a press conference later in the day Davis told reporters that while his main priority was re-election and the governing of California, he declined to rule out a possible presidential (or vice-presidential) bid in 2004. “All that I can tell you is that I have no plans but to work as hard as I can to be re-elected and spend the next four years being governor,” Davis said accompanied by his wife, Sharon. 

If Davis does decide to make a presidential bid, attendees of the convention got a good look at who his likely Democratic opponents would be. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, and Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, were all present Saturday morning to give state Democrats a boost, and, according to many observers, to show themselves off as presidential hopefuls for 2004. 

While none of the three Senators admitted to executive ambitions, none denied the possibility of a 2004 presidential run. Senator Kerry was the most explicit in connecting his name to the office of president. “A number of you have asked me if I’m interested in running for the most powerful office in the land,” he joked in his opening remarks. “And no, I have no interest in being secretary of state of Florida.” 

But while there may have been passing reference to the 2000 election fiasco which placed George Bush in the presidency, criticism of Bush’s policies was distinctly lacking. While none of the speakers dwelled on the events Sept. 11, many made mention of their support of the United States’ efforts to combat terrorism.  

As though in deference to the President’s stellar approval ratings, speakers devoted only a small portion of their time to bashing Bush on domestic issues. But even then, speakers felt compelled to justify their criticism as being a part of the very Democratic process the country is fighting for in its war on terror. Being patriotic and supporting the president’s efforts to combat terrorism, said California Senator Barbara Boxer, “does not mean being quiet and becoming a fly on the wall on every other issue.” 

Criticisms of the president were mainly linked to his administration’s ties to Enron.  

“George Bush has given us a government that looks like it’s run like an Enron board meeting,” said Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe.  

Senator Boxer joined in criticizing the Bush team: “This administration has embraced an energy policy that is drill drill and burn burn,” she said.  

But while many of the speakers spoke out against Enron, Governor Davis reserved his mention of the corporation for the press conference following his speech. Responding to a reporter’s question of whether Davis was considering refunding the campaign contributions given him by Enron to former Enron employees, Davis countered defensively. “No one in America fought Enron harder [than I did],” Davis said.  

“I had to fight Enron tooth and nail--so I see no reason to give back the money.” 

But while many delegates supported Davis, his relationship to Enron kept them from endorsing the governor unequivocally. “You can’t help but question anyone who, under the circumstances, took campaign contributions [from Enron],” said Harvey Kessler, 47, a delegate from Palm Desert, CA. “Enron was charging enormous rates to California while he was taking campaign contributions.” Still, Kessler, who came dressed in a neon Hawaiian shirt, with Uncle Sam hat and tennis shoes added, he wouldn’t judge Davis by a single issue, and in general “liked” the governor.  

Xavier Raeyes of the United Farm Workers (UFW), was less generous with his support. “He’s a Democrat in office,” said Raeyes. “It’s a lesser of two evils. Who do you want? A Republican, or a Democrat?” 

UFW political director Giev Kashkooli was likewise reserved in his support of Davis. “I think he has a mixed record,” Kashkooli said of Davis’ support of farm workers unions and immigrant rights. “There’s a lot more things he could be doing. He’s been slow to act.”  

Kashkooli said that though he thought Davis was sympathetic to the UFW’s cause, he didn’t think Davis had committed much time to it. “I think it’s fair to say that it’s not a priority for Davis,” said Kashkooli. “We’re on his list, but we’re pretty far down on the list.” 

Kashkooli said it was important for Davis to have the support of the UFW “because it basically represents the Latino community.”  

Maria Martinez, the northern vice chair of the Chicano/Latino Caucus was more enthusiastic about Davis. “We strongly support Gray Davis,” she said. “Davis is the first governor who’s gone to Mexico. I think he’s done a very good job.”  

Martinez gave Davis high marks for appointing Latinos to policy-making positions in his government. “We’re very happy about that,” said Martinez. “We’ll do whatever we can to help Davis help Latinos.” 

From the looks of it, Davis may need all the help he can get. Although his party overwhelmingly controls the state government, in the above-mentioned Los Angeles Times poll, less than half of all registered Democrats polled said they would definitely vote for Davis. He’s also going up against a Republican party that has strong national support, an extremely popular president, and a lot at stake in California with its 55 electoral votes. But Davis said he was ready for tough race. “I’m Gray Davis and I am the governor,” he said. “Whichever one of you emerges from the Republican primary--you’re in for the fight of your life.” 

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2002. There are 314 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

Forty years ago, on Feb. 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, flying aboard Friendship 7. 

On this date: 

In 1790, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II died. 

In 1792, President Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office. 

In 1809, the Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state. 

In 1839, Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia. 

In 1895, abolitionist Frederick Douglass died in Washington, D.C. 

In 1933, the House of Representatives completed congressional action on an amendment to repeal Prohibition. 

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that became known as “Big Week.” 

In 1965, the Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface. 

In 1971, the National Emergency Warning Center in Colorado erroneously ordered U.S. radio and TV stations off the air; some stations heeded the alert, which was not lifted for about 40 minutes. 

In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia cleared the final major hurdle to its maiden launch as the spacecraft fired its three engines in a 20-second test. 

Ten years ago: Texas billionaire Ross Perot told CNN’s “Larry King Live” he would run for president if his name were placed on the ballot in all 50 states. 

Five years ago: The National Transportation Safety Board called for a speedup in the redesign of the rudder controls on Boeing 737’s, citing potential problems suspected in a pair of deadly crashes. 

One year ago: The government announced the arrest two days earlier of veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years. Space shuttle Atlantis landed in the Mojave Desert after three straight days of bad weather prevented the ship from returning to its Florida home port. 

Today’s Birthdays: Fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt is 78. Movie director Robert Altman is 77. Actor Sidney Poitier is 75. Actress Marj Dusay is 66. Jazz-soul singer Nancy Wilson is 65. Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is 61. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Phil Esposito is 60. Movie director Mike Leigh is 59. Actress Brenda Blethyn is 56. Actress Sandy Duncan is 56. Rock musician J. Geils is 56. Actor Peter Strauss is 55. Rock singer-musician-producer Walter Becker (Steely Dan) is 52. Actor Edward Albert is 51. Country singer Kathie Baillie is 51. Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is 48. Actor James Wilby is 44. Rock musician Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing) is 43. Comedian Joel Hodgson is 42. Basketball player Charles Barkley is 39. Rock musician Ian Brown (Stone Roses) is 39. Actor French Stewart is 38. Actor Ron Eldard is 37. Model Cindy Crawford is 36. Actor Andrew Shue is 35. Actress Lili Taylor is 35. Singer Brian Littrell (Backstreet Boys) is 27. Actor Jay Hernandez is 24. Actress Majandra Delfino (“Traffic”) is 21. Singer-musician Chris Thile is 21. Actor Jake Richardson is 17.

Though various community members lauded the redistricting proposal brought forth by 16-year-old Nick Rizzo, it was Elliott Cohen’s plan that received the unanimous approval of the Council. 

Rizzo thanked councilmember Polly Armstrong for his decision to get involved in the project. 

“I drew these plans with the sense of community building and bi-partisan negotiating I think she has tried to promote,” Rizzo said. 

But some members of the community and council referred to the plan as being too politically based, as it was drawn more in accordance with social demographics than seeking to strictly correct the previous undercounting. 

Rizzo’s proposal was also chosen as an option to further study in a 5-4 vote in perfect accordance to party lines. 

Cohen’s plan received unanimous support for all members of the Council. And it would take the numbers of district 7 where the majority of Unversity of California Berkeley students live and place them into district 8 — undercounted last time around, according to Cohen. 

This proposal will make it very difficult for students who are waging an effort to get representation on the City Council.

SAN FRANCISCO — Dogged by scandal, the city’s Elections Department has lost credibility in the eyes of many San Franciscans, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle. 

In a poll the paper commissioned and published Tuesday, 31 percent of 500 voters said they doubt the city can be trusted to count votes accurately. 

The department has weathered numerous problems in recent years, including a state investigation, missing or uncounted ballots and lost precinct rosters. 

While the paper’s investigation found no evidence of vote rigging, it found elections have been tainted by numerous mistakes. 

“When people can’t trust that their votes are being counted, that’s a real crisis,” said Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation, a statewide elections watchdog group. 

In less than three years, the department has gone through four directors — three with no previous elections experience — and lost numerous rank-and-file employees. 

“There is a perception of a department out of control,” said David Binder, who conducted the poll.

SAN FRANCISCO — Andy Kampe was six when his family fled the communists in Latvia, fearing for their lives. He still remembers seeing the Statue of Liberty when they arrived in America. 

Now, 51 years later, the Half Moon Bay business owner is continuing to build his American Dream, and he has California Lottery millions to help him. 

The newest winner, who owns Kampe Construction, received an oversized check Tuesday for the $64.3 million he’ll get before taxes over the next 26 years. Kampe elected to take the money in annual payments, and the first real check, for $1.6 million, should arrive in two to six weeks. 

Kampe held one of three winning tickets for Saturday’s record $193 million jackpot. He grew curious after hearing on the radio Sunday that there was a winner in his small coastal town. 

Kampe checked his 20 “Quick Pick” tickets against the numbers in Sunday’s paper and found he had a winner. 

The two other winning tickets were sold in Southern California, at two 7-Eleven stores in Orange and Montebello. Those winners have yet to come forward. 

Kampe said Tuesday that he and his family — his wife Diane quit her job as a nurse at Coastside Medical Clinic — would “go hide” for about a month to figure out what to do with the money. He has two daughters, Amanda Valerino, 27, who lives in Nevada, and Ana Kampe, 26, who lives in Oregon. 

Kampe said he’s planning to fire himself from his job, travel and possibly make some big purchases. 

“I’ve gone to Europe on business, but I’ve never had a chance to go with my family,” he said. “I’ll probably get myself a pretty hot car. I’ve got a truck now.” 

He’d also like to give to disabled and paralyzed veterans organizations. Kampe said his brother served in Vietnam and a daughter, Valerino, is a U.S. Army veteran. 

Kampe said he plans to visit relatives in Latvia. His relatives in the United States include his brother, sister and mother. They fled to this country after his grandfather, who was a rich man in Latvia, was arrested and shot in the communist takeover of the country. 

Kampe talked to members of the press Tuesday in San Francisco with Valerino. The bashful winner was modest about his luck, but Valerino jumped in to talk up her dad. 

“He did deserve it. He’s the smartest man I know. I don’t know what I’d do without my dad,” she said. “He should be the president.” 

Kampe grew up in Michigan and graduated from Cal Tech in 1966. He moved to Half Moon Bay in 1970 and recently celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary with his wife. 

Kampe bought the ticket at an Alberston’s store, and he said he usually buys $5 to $10 in tickets when the jackpot grows to around $40 million. 

The $193 million jackpot created a buying frenzy as the deadline approached prior to Saturday night’s drawing. Hopeful millionaires snapped up a record $6 million worth of tickets per hour. 

The jackpot was the largest single-state prize ever hit. It was the fifth-largest including multistate games, the California Lottery said. The biggest lottery payout in U.S. history was $363 million in May 2000 for the multistate Powerball game. California’s previous record jackpot was $141 million on June 23, 2001, won by Al Castellano of San Jose. 

MENLO PARK — California workers paid nearly 10 percent more for their employer-provided health insurance last year than the year before, although their costs were still under the national average, a survey found. 

Californians paid about $197 a month for employer-sponsored health coverage for one person last year and about $521 a month for family coverage, according to the survey. That was a 9.9 percent increase over the previous year but still under the national average of $221 for single coverage and $588 for family coverage. 

The survey was done by the Health Research and Educational Trust, a private, nonprofit organization that researches the health management field, and by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which said it is not associated with health-care giant Kaiser Permanente. 

The study also found that the percentage of workers in California who are enrolled in health maintenance organizations dropped from 55 percent in 2000 to 48 percent in 2001. 

Results were based on 846 interviews with employee benefit managers in private California firms with three or more workers from May 2001 to August 2001. The margin of error given was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. 

Kidnapper may be first to hand over DNA 

LIVERMORE — Philip Hunter, who is accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl, may be one of the first Californians required to provide a DNA sample under a new state law. 

The law sponsored by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, added robbery, arson, burglary and carjacking to nine other crimes already eligible for DNA testing, such as murder, sexual assault and kidnapping. 

Hunter, 37, has four prior burglary convictions. He is accused of grabbing the teen-ager as she walked to school last week and forcing her into the trunk of his car. Hunter appeared to be headed for a remote location, possibly to commit a sexual assault, before the girl escaped near Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, police said. 

Livermore police said several agencies contacted them last week about Hunter in connection with similar, unsolved crimes. 

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who backed the legislation, says Hunter’s case demonstrates how common it is for allegedly violent criminals to have prior burglary convictions. 

“Forty-three percent of the convicted sexual offenders in California have a prior burglary conviction,” Lockyer said.  

Man stabs wife, kills her friend 

OAKLAND — A man on parole for severely beating his wife five years ago was arrested Monday after allegedly stabbing his wife and killing one of her friends with a 10-inch carving knife, police said. 

James T. Mayberry, 44, called police around 3 a.m. on Monday, told the dispatcher he had stabbed his wife, and then left the house, investigators said. He was arrested a few blocks away. 

Police found Mayberry’s wife, LaShone Mayberry, 33, barely alive in a bedroom, and her friend, Kathy Mitchell, 38, dead. The couple’s three children were asleep in the living room during the incident and were unhurt. 

Oakland Police Department Sgt. Jeff Ferguson, who interviewed James Mayberry with Sgt. Gus Galindo, said Mayberry allegedly claimed the stabbing resulted from an argument that started over him drinking some of the women’s beer. 

Mayberry, who worked as a cook at a Berkeley restaurant, was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence in 1998. He was sentenced to five years in prison and paroled last April on the condition that he stay away from his wife, authorities said. 

Mayberry was arrested on suspicion of two counts of murder and is being held without bail at the Oakland City Jail. If convicted, he could face the death penalty, authorities said. 

Hoover Tower bells return to Stanford 

STANFORD — The 48 bells of the Hoover Tower carillon have returned home after a two-year trip to their birthplace in Belgium. 

Installation of the first bells began Tuesday morning, said Craig Snarr, Facility Manager for the Hoover Institution. 

Snarr said the bells range from 4 inches to 4 feet tall and weigh between a few pounds to 2.5 tons. 

The bells had been removed from Stanford and sent to the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry in Ostend, Belgium, as part of a restoration project. 

The carillon’s automatic-play drum, which rotates in a manner similar to a music box activating hammers on the outside of about half the carillon’s bells, also is being restored. It was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. 

The carillon was built in 1938 by the Michiels bell foundry in Belgium and was part of the New York World’s Fair of 1939-1940. After the fair ended, the Belgian American Educational Foundation purchased the carillon and presented it to the Hoover Institution in appreciation of Herbert Hoover’s famine relief efforts in Europe following World War I. 

YORBA LINDA — Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime “harbors terrorist groups,” expanding on the Bush administration’s claims of a so-called axis of evil made up of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. 

Cheney’s remarks to a luncheon group at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace went beyond previous characterizations that Iraq has in the past harbored terrorists. 

Cheney on Friday addressed the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., where he said, ”(Hussein) has in the past had some dealing with terrorists, clearly. Abu Nidal for a long time operated out of Baghdad.” 

In Yorba Linda, however, the vice president said the terrorist associations are current. 

”(Hussein’s) regime also harbors terrorist groups including Abu Nidal and the Palestine Liberation Front,” Cheney told a $2,500-a-plate luncheon to raise money for the library. Abu Nidal is a Palestinian mastermind terrorist. 

Cheney, on the second day of a four-day California visit, also repeated the administration’s claim that Iran “is the world’s leading exporter of terror.” 

He commented only briefly on North Korea, noting that President Bush was visiting South Korea Tuesday and would be addressing the administration’s concerns over North Korea’s weapons programs. 

“Each of these regimes has a choice to make,” Cheney said. “The international community should encourage all of them to make responsible choices and to do so with a sense of urgency.” 

U.S. allies have been critical of the “axis of evil” remark, which Bush made in his State of the Union address last month in defining how Washington plans to approach its war on terrorism. But Cheney said Tuesday, “the evidence is compelling.” 

Hussein’s Iraq “has single-mindedly sought weapons of mass destruction, and the means to deliver them,” he said. “Saddam has long employed terror and used chemical weapons against his own people and neighbors. His regime also harbors terrorist groups, including Abu Nidal and the Palestine Liberation Front. Since the mid-1990s, Baghdad has publicly claimed to have a suicide terrorist capability in the Fedayeen Saddam, directed by Saddam’s oldest son.” 

The vice president described the fight against terrorism as “the defining struggle of the 21st century.” 

Before his address to about 150 guests, Cheney was met by a small knot of protesters outside the library. They held signs criticizing the war in Afghanistan and linking Cheney to the failed Enron Corp. 

Cheney and his wife, Lynne, toured the library with President Nixon’s daughter Julie Nixon Eisenhower, and the library foundation awarded the Cheneys the Architect of Peace Award, which honors public service. 

Later, Cheney taped an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” He said on the show that those responsible for Enron’s collapse of should pay “a very heavy price.” 

Cheney’s visit to California is part of an increasingly public schedule for the vice president. For security reasons he has been largely out of view in recent months in undisclosed locations outside of Washington. 

Leno turned that into a joke, pretending to search for Cheney before he came onstage. 

“Just what the country needs, another undisclosed location joke,” the vice president deadpanned as he popped from behind a closed door. 

Cheney visited the troops at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego on Monday, and is scheduled to discuss agriculture with farmers in Fresno on Wednesday and deliver remarks on the new economy in the Silicon Valley on Thursday. 

There is also a political subtext to Cheney’s visit, which comes two weeks before the March 5 primary, when California Republicans will select a challenger to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. The administration is eager to install a Republican governor in the nation’s most populous state. 

Cheney was expected to raise $1 million for the state Republican Party at a fund-raiser Tuesday evening and was also scheduled to attend fund-raisers for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin.

NEW YORK — The losses of venture capitalists continued to deepen last year while the industry coped with the fallout from the collapse of the Internet economy, according to a research report released Tuesday. 

Venture capital funds sustained an average loss of 32.4 percent in the year ending Sept. 30, based on numbers compiled by Venture Economics for the National Venture Capital Association, an industry trade group. The loss for that one-year period fell from an average decline of 18.2 percent for the year ending June 30, the report said. 

For the three months ended Sept. 30, venture capital funds lost an average of 10 percent, the report said. 

Like most investors in high-tech companies, venture capitalists have been badly burned by the stock market’s recent distaste for businesses tied to the Internet. To reflect the poor market conditions, venture capitalists have been sharply discounting the value of their portfolios. 

Despite the industry’s terrible showing during 2001, venture capital remained one of the best performing investments over a longer term period. In the three years ended Sept. 30, venture capital funds posted an average annual gain of 53.9 percent, the report said.

BEVERLY HILLS — Global Crossing, which is seeking bankruptcy protection after one of the most spectacular flameouts in U.S. telecommunications history, gave contracts to a fledgling Internet firm run by the son of one of its own senior executives. 

Global Crossing did at least two deals last year with Chicago-based Withit.com, a streaming media company run by the son of Joseph Perrone, executive vice president of finance, the New York Times reported Monday. 

Analysts say there was nothing illegal about the transactions, but there were other firms that might have been better suited to do the jobs. 

“There are a number of companies that are well known and established who stream financial content to investors and traders over the Internet,” said Paul Ritter, an analyst with the Yankee Group, a telecommunications research firm. “Withit is not one of them.” 

Global Crossing spokesman Daniel Coulter said Perrone was not involved in approving the Withit contracts. He could not give details on how the two companies came to work together. 

Coulter said the company was reviewing whether it needed to disclose its relationship with Withit in a future filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Withit’s chairman and president, Joseph Perrone Jr., told the Times: “In no way can I comment on any of that, or whatever is happening with the Securities and Exchange Commission,” he said. “I can’t help you. I can’t talk about this matter.” 

The revelation brings more questions about the finance department of Global Crossing, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month. 

Perrone joined Global Crossing in 2000 after overseeing the company’s accounting methods for independent auditor Arthur Anderson. Those financial practices are now under investigation by the SEC and the FBI. 

Among investigators’ concerns is whether Global Crossing misled investors by booking swaps with other telecom firms as revenue, even though cash often never changed hands. 

In one contract, Global Crossing hired Withit to evaluate the technology in a desktop securities-trading operation Global Grossing was preparing to sell to Goldman Sachs for $360 million. 

Corporate governance experts question whether Global Crossing’s board was objective enough to review the company’s activities properly. 

“In the case of both the Perrone relationship and the board structure, it is not ideal, but from what we know, not necessarily wrong,” said Michael Useem, professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

But the fact that the company is now looking at disclosing its relationship with Withit to the SEC suggests that “it may be a significant business relationship” perhaps one worth the board’s attention, he said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Shareholders aren’t the only ones upset by ImClone Systems Inc.’s dwindling stock price and its troubles with the Food and Drug Administration and an angry corporate partner. 

Desperately ill cancer patients fear their lives are being cut short because ImClone botched its FDA application for the approval of the drug Erbitux, which had been eagerly expected for this year. 

“Many patients had hoped for this drug and there was a lot of excitement,” said cancer survivor Pamela McAllister of the Colorectal Cancer Network, a patient-support and lobbying organization. “I, too, had hope for it. Now I don’t know.” 

Erbitux is a new breed of drug, a “smart bomb” that attacks bad cells while leaving good ones alone. It’s so precisely aimed that in limited human tests, it appeared to have few side effects except for some facial acne. 

Most cancer drugs now on the market indiscriminately attack all rapidly growing tissue in the body in the hope they will kill more bad cells than good. Those chemotherapy treatments often produce severe side effects such as fatigue and nausea. 

“I certainly would have a better quality of life without the side effects,” said colorectal cancer patient Vee Kumar, a 47-year-old school psychologist in Kirkland, Wash. “It’s extremely frustrating to realize this drug isn’t available because of incomplete paperwork.” 

No doctors expected Erbitux to be a miracle cure. Still, it came highly touted because results from human tests showed promise in fighting colorectal, pancreatic and head-and-neck cancers, among others. 

The FDA last year granted the drug “fast-track” approval status for treating colorectal cancer, which kills 56,000 people a year in the United States, where about 133,000 people are diagnosed with it each year. 

Erbitux, a molecule that blocks cancer’s ability to fuel its own growth, was seen as a good, last-hope treatment for patients who proved resistant to chemotherapy. 

“The bottom line is that the drug works in some people,” said Dr. Robert Mayer, director of gastrointestinal oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “Many of us have been very enthusiastic about this drug.” 

The drug’s reputation grew dramatically in May, when ImClone released data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in San Francisco showing that cancer tumors shrank in 22.5 percent of the 120 patients in a clinical trial. That’s a good response for a cancer drug. 

Even before that announcement, online cancer chat rooms had been buzzing and the company’s stock skyrocketed on a steady stream of good publicity. 

Patients badgered their doctors and the company for access to the drug. 

ImClone CEO Sam Waksal told a congressional panel examining “compassionate use” of experimental, unapproved drugs last year that his company received 8,500 requests for Erbitux between May 2000 and January 2001. 

Usually, patients needing unapproved treatments are enrolled in clinical trials meant to gather data for FDA approval. Needy patients not involved in the trials can still obtain experimental drugs through “compassionate use” and “expanded access” programs allowed by the FDA. 

Waksal told the committee the company could offer compassionate use to only 30 patients because of production limitations at ImClone, a small New York City-based company. 

“We know we let people down, but we tried our best,” Waksal said. “Our feeling has been and continues to be that the best and most compassionate thing we can do now is to concentrate on getting the drug approved as expeditiously and as broadly as possible, so that all the patients in need can get this drug.” 

Waksal had hoped the drug would be approved by now. So did Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which sealed the drug’s sterling reputation in September when it paid $1.2 billion and pledged $800 million more to partner with ImClone and share Erbitux profits. 

Since the FDA refused on Dec. 28 to even review the Erbitux application without more documentation, Bristol-Myers has had write off $735 million from the deal. 

The openly feuding partners plan to meet with the FDA next Tuesday to discuss reworking the application. But even the most bullish ImClone analysts now say Erbitux will be on the market no earlier than late 2003. 

ImClone — which faces three federal investigations and at least a dozen class-action shareholder lawsuits — also has temporarily shelved a plan to petition the FDA to give to Erbitux to more needy patients pending approval, three cancer patient advocates said. 

“We were very close to announcing the expanded access,” said patient advocate Frank Burroughs. “That’s been stopped dead in the tracks.” 

Burroughs, whose 21-year-old daughter died of head-and-neck cancer in May, was among those negotiating with ImClone late last year for expanded access to Erbitux when ImClone got its bad news. 

The advocates said ImClone executives told them they want to await next week’s meeting before resuming their efforts. 

“It’s a shame that it’s not out there,” said Fred Santino of Arlington, Mass., whose wife died in May of colorectal cancer while unsuccessfully seeking Erbitux. “Cancer is bad enough without all of this other stuff going on.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

ImClone: http://www.imclone.com 

Colorectal Cancer Network: http://www.colorectal-cancer.net 

FDA: http://www.fda.gov 

Last week KPFA began its pledge drive just around the same time that Pacifica Radio Network announced sharp budget and program cuts as well as staff lay-offs in an attempt to blot out some of the red ink on its beleaguered books. 

Aaron Glantz, producer of Free Speech Radio News at Berkeley-based KPFA, said pending budget cuts are sad but necessary to restore the network’s finances. 

One of the programs to be cut will be the national news (The Pacifica Network News or PNN), which is a half-hour news show airs on four of the five Pacifica stations and on more than a dozen affiliates nationwide. The last day of operations for PNN news was Friday, Feb. 15 and its nine member staff has been furloughed.  

“It’s really sad that they had to close down the national news. I’ve reported for it many times,” Glantz said. “But it was a bloated national news, and it played on very few stations. Perhaps now we can put out a better news that will reach more people.”  

Pacifica Executive Producer of National Programming Brian Gibbons says the cuts will not likely be noticed in Berkeley because KPFA has the capacity to replace the cut programs. 

“There will obviously be some voices that listeners are use to hearing that they will no longer hear. But KPFA more so than other stations will easily be able to fill the slot,” he said. 

PNN will be replaced with Free Speech Radio News. Free Speech Radio News is the broadcast of former PNN reporters who waged a strike against management. 

At present there have been ten lay offs at Pacifica that include staff members with up to 20 years worth of seniority.  

“This doesn’t have a lot to do with the political struggle. It’s an entirely financial concern,” Gibbons said. 

But according to Glantz proposed lay offs will include new personnel brought in to replace former staff members fired after protesting the network.  

Also in an effort to reduce the network’s deficit, flagship program and top fundraiser, Democracy Now!, is being reorganized. A statement released by Pacifica’s new management stated that this will save approximately 25 percent in costs to the network. 

Other national units, including the Pacifica Radio Archives, the national office, and the finance department, will be absorbing cuts of 20 percent.  

The network's senior managers will also be taking a 10 percent pay cut and Coughlin will reportedly take a 25 percent reduction in salary.  

“The national management is trying to shield the stations, including KPFA, from the national debt. So in the meantime, we just have to try to raise as much money as possible,” Glantz said. 

Glantz also said KPFA now has control over their finances and consequently have a real motivation for fund raising. 

Last June Pacifica’s Foundation was criticized by Sen. John Burton, D-San Francisco, for allegedly refusing to share KPFA’s financial information with station management.  

Burton also condemned the foundation for using listener donations to pay for the board’s legal fees and efforts “to oppose union organizing.” 

KPFA journalist David Landau said the station had difficulty even getting access to the money it raised.  

But Glantz and other KPFA activists are placing their hopes in the new Pacifica management and the community to help turn things around. He also said that activists involved in a lawsuit against the network are anticipating a settlement soon with the new management team. 

Former Pacifica News Director Dan Coughlin, fired after talking on air about a one-day boycott of various stations carrying the Pacifica News, is now the network’s acting executive director.  

“We have to make some tough choices,” Coughlin said. “But together with the entire Pacifica community — with listeners, local and national board members, senior managers, and our unions, we’re going to bring this network back to where it has been the last half century – at the cutting edge of American political and artistic life.” 

The 53-year-old nonprofit recently concluded an independent review of its finances — ordered by its new interim board of directors — and revealed an unprecedented working capital deficit of $4.8 million and a projected budget gap for the 2002 calendar year of $1.5 million, according to a statement released by the network. 

“To stop the financial hemorrhaging, the nation’s oldest listener-sponsored network will reorganize its satellite distribution service and national programming division, thus saving more than $1 million over the next year,” according to a statement released by the network. 

Budget cuts and expanded fund-raising plans are expected to close this year’s $1.5 million budget gap without impinging on Pacifica’s core operations at its five sister stations, said a network spokesperson. 

The Pacifica National Board also approved the hiring of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey to handle the network’s relationship with its large creditors.  

Pacifica has been billed for approximately $2.2 million by various law and public relations firms and security companies during the past year. 

“We are bringing clarity and order to Pacifica’s financial crisis,” said Pacifica Board Chair Leslie Cagan. “We will meet the Foundation’s obligations as we revitalize its mission of free speech, corporate-free community radio.” 

The network plunged into deep crisis following the 23-day lock out of staff and community at Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley in the summer of 1999 and the “Christmas Coup” at Pacifica-owned WBAI station in New York in December 2000. The year before, network executives spent a record amount. In 15 months the network went from a $600,000 surplus to a deficit of almost $5 million. 

SALT LAKE CITY – Plenty people go through life with wrong-headed notions. The difference between Steven Bradbury and the rest of us is that he has a gold medal to show for his. 

So much for the traditional Olympic motto of “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.” 

Because Bradbury’s is “hang around and wait for a crash.” 

And after the way the 28-year-old Australian won the most improbable of golds in the 1,000-meter short track speedskating final, who’s going to say which is better? 

Midway through the last lap of Saturday night’s race, the only guy trailing Bradbury with 50 meters to go was the Zamboni driver. 

That was by design. 

He had made it through the quarterfinals because the two skaters ahead of him crashed. By the time he started the semifinal, his legs were shot. This time, Bradbury was praying for a crash. He got through instead because the skater ahead of him was disqualified. 

Rather than wrack his brain devising a new strategy the night before the final, Bradbury decided to make productive use of his time. 

He was so sure that Apolo Anton Ohno would win, that he dashed off an e-mail to the American cover boy asking him to plug the speedskating boots he was wearing on the medals stand. That’s because Bradbury had manufactured them. Then he put his head on a pillow and said one final prayer. 

“I was just hoping,” Bradbury recalled Sunday, “for another accident or a collision.” 

For most of the race, he looked exactly like what he was — a slacker. Up ahead, leading a pack of four skaters into the final corner was Ohno, about to deliver the first of an expected four golds. Just outside of Ohno was China’s Li Jiajun. On their heels were Korean Ahn Hyun-soo and Canadian Mathieu Turcotte. 

One moment, all Bradbury could see were flashing blades, jostling skaters and elbows flying at acute angles. In the next moment, miraculously, the thicket of bodies parted like the Red Sea. 

“I can’t recall a race where four guys went down together,” he said. “It doesn’t happen every day.” 

Some athletes’ struggles are worth celebrating as much as their victories. Bradbury’s story is one of those, an overnight sensation that was a dozen years in the making. 

Along the way, he was impaled on a skate blade in one race — a wound that required 111 stitches to close — and broke his neck in another. And yet, somehow, he always found a way to hang around. 

Bradbury was a promising 20-year-old and a gold-medal contender in the 1,000 at the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. He got wiped out in a first-round crash. His consolation was a bronze in the 5,000-meter relay, Australia’s first Winter Games medal of any kind. 

Four years later, there wasn’t even that much. In Nagano, he finished 19th in the 500, 21st in the 1,000, and the Aussies finished eighth and last in the 5,000 relay. But Bradbury still couldn’t let go. 

He went back home to Brisbane and started making the speedskating boots in the garage of his parents’ home. He used what little money it generated to supplement the stipend he received from the Australian Olympic Committee — about $10,000 annually in U.S. dollars — and moved into their basement to save money. 

He trained at the ice rink they worked at and came here with modest ambitions. John and Rhonda Bradbury came along for once, too. The Bradburys might be Australia’s first family of short track speedskating, but in a country with one winter resort to speak of that doesn’t translate into much. 

John was the national champion almost 40 years ago, and his younger son, Warren, was on the Aussie team from 1995-97. But the family still had to scrimp and save for 18 months to make the trip. 

“Whatever happens,” Rhonda said, “at least this time I’m going to be here to see it.” 

She almost didn’t. The only tickets the Bradburys could afford stuck them in the next-to-last row of seats in the arena. 

Seconds after their son crossed the line with Australia’s first-ever Winter Games gold, his countrymen burst into celebration. John and Rhonda tried calling Warren in Canada, but by the time they got through, a friend answered and said he was already on his way to the bar. 

Fate jumps up and plants a golden kiss on your cheek only once in a lifetime — if you’re lucky. Bradbury’s Olympic moment was the best of these games precisely because it came when no one had a right to expect it. 

“Sometimes it’s a very cruel sport. Sometimes,” he said, “it’s a sport you smile a lot about.’

Editor: 

In the article about the family of the slain CIA officer, the officer’s family was quoted as saying that John Walker Lindh is a traitor.  

I am sorry that anyone had to die and I may be churlish but I don't really feel much anger, hatred or fear about Lindh.  

The ground is not level but I feel considerable fear from the Office of John Ashcroft and the CIA. The CIA has certainly acted as a terrorist group many times since it was established. One should not be surprised that its members get killed now and then.  

In fact it could be said that some of its deeds inspired Osama bin Laden to act and young Lindh to follow a different drummer.  

Perhaps Lindh could be assigned to 10 years of community service ... cleaning public toilets, etc. 

Arthur B. Waugh 

Berkeley

Tuesday, Feb. 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

Hosts “Crystal Palaces” 

1 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

Ann Cunningham, author of “Crystal Palaces” will present slides of glass houses from the turn of the century to the present. Scott Medburry, Director Strybing Arboretum & Botanic Garden, will talk about the history of San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers including an update on its recent renovation. 524-4374. 

21st Century McCarthyism & The Rise of the Global Police State 

6 - 8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Wheeler Auditorium 

The following speakers present their interpretations of Sept. 11 and its aftermath: Angela Davis, Diane Clemens and Jennifer Terry. Sponsored by the Departments of Women's Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, & Ethnic Studies, and Professors for Peace. xperales@uclink.berkeley.edu. 

Pioneering Woman Federal Judge 

4:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Room 100 

The Hon. Mary M. Schroeder, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, speaks on "Justice and Mercy." Inaugural event of American Constitution Society for Law & Policy, Boalt Hall Chapter. 642-1741, amconstsoc@law.berkeley.edu. 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

Wednesday, Feb. 20

Staying Connected: Building A Secular Jewish Life 

7:30 - 9:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

An evening of discussion and song with a Klezmer/Yiddish musician. $5. 848-0237 x 127 

Institute of Government Studies 

4 p.m. 

119 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

Gerald Gamm lectures as part of the Historical Institutionalism Seminar. 642-4608, www.igs.berkeley.edu 

Colonial Courts, African Conflicts, and the End of Slavery in the French Souda 

4 - 6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 3335 Dwinelle, Level “C”A talk by Richard Roberts of Stanford University. Sponsored by Department of History, Department of African-American Studies, and Center for African Studies. 642-8338. 

Cultural Competency in Healthcare 

6 - 7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley YWCA  

2600 Bancroft Way 

Racial Justice Lecture Series and discussion on overcoming ethnic and gender differences to deliver healthcare in under-served populations. 848-6370, www.ywca-berkeley.org. 

East Bay Job Fair 

noon - 6 p.m. 

Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center 

10 10th St., Oakland 

The United Way of the Bay Area, Economic Development Alliance for Business, and Bay Area Works are hosting a job fair. Free and open to everyone. 238-2410, www.uwba.org.  

Thursday, Feb. 21

Barbara Lee 

8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

145 Dwinelle Hall 

Rep. Barbara Lee will be on campus. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club and the Center on Politics. 642-9355, www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Purim Lecture 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Discover the deeper meaning of Purim as Rabbi Alexander Sheinfeld uses the lens of Kabbalah to explore what Purim has to do with being Jewish and with being human. $10, $8 members. 848-0237 x127 

Zimbabwe Wildlife 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Julie Edwards of Rhino Girl Safaris gives a slide presentation showcasing Zimbabwe’s remarkable variety of birds and mammals, and discusses the future of wildlife and the safari industry in Africa. 527-7377 

Travel Photography Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

An intensive workshop that focuses on travel photography, with an emphasis on film and equipment security, light and weather conditions, methods to make the most of well-known sites, and ways to approach and photograph strangers. $15. 843-3533 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

“TV and Media” – Several people who have given up their TVs will talk about the difficulties and benefits. 549-3509, www.seeds of simplicity.org. 

Take the Terror Out of Talking 

noon - 1:10 p.m. 

Calif. Dept. Health Services 

2151 Berkeley Way 

Room 804 

State Health Toastmasters Club is presenting a six-week Speechcraft workshop to help you overcome your fear of speaking in public and improve your communication skills. Cost is $36 for six sessions, Feb. 21, 28 & March 7, 14, 21. 649-7750. 

Friday, Feb. 22

Grand Canyon Splendor: Rafting the Colorado 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author and former river guide, Tyler Williams, presents the dramatic beauty of the Grand Canyon in his slide presentation on rafting the Colorado. 527-7377 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Short stories. 232-1351. 

Saturday, Feb. 23

Archaeological Institute of America 

3 p.m. 

Shorb House 

2547 Channing Way 

Lecture by Dr. Stuart Swiny discussing Cypriot rituals surrounding fertility, life and death from the Neolithic to the Roman era. 415-338-1537, barbaram@sfsu.edu. 

Paying for Public Education: 

Whose Job Is It? 

3 - 5:30 p.m. 

Ocean View Elementary School 

Multi-Purpose Room 

1000 Jackson St., Albany 

A forum with Kevin Gordon of the Education Coalition, who will explain state-level funding for K-12 schools. Candidates for the California Assembly 14th District seat Debate: Dave Brown (D), Loni Hancock (D), and Charles Ramsey (D). 524-7004, hao_kco@pacbell.net.  

Monday, Feb. 25

A Rose Grew in Brooklyn: Stories from a Jewish Girlhood 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Local author and therapist, Rose Fox reads from her memoir. 

Institute of Government Studies 

12 p.m. 

119 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

John Matsasuka presents a lecture entitled “For the Many or the Few: How the Initiative Process Changes American Government”. 642-4608, www.igs.berkeley.edu 

Tuesday, Feb. 26

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

Wednesday, Feb. 27

Berkeley Gray Panthers 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Defending and improving Medicare. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com.  

Berkeley Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors authored Measure K has so far been coasting toward the March 5th primaries with few coming out in opposition and wide-scale support. 

But how voters will respond to the parcel tax that will cost $12 per year per single family home is still difficult to say. 

Rosemary Cameron, asst.. general manager of public affairs for the East Bay Regional Parks District, said a poll was conducted last fall and illustrated substantial support for the Measure. But Cameron also stated, without further elaboration, that polling indicated a substantial need to educate voters. 

Measure K will be on the March 5 ballot, and if approved, it will bring in $8.4 million annually to pay for maintenance and operation cost of East Bay Regional Parks. 

Park District directors unanimously approved the the details of the measure at their meeting on Oct. 16 in Oakland.  

“Over the past ten years, the District has grown in size by 31 percent," General Manager Pat O'Brien said. “During the same period, funds for maintenance and operations have grown slowly in constant dollar terms.” 

Cameron says that a survey conducted by the park district showed that approximately 14 million people use the various parks and trails on an annual basis. 

“Our survey research indicates that 90 percent of the people in the East Bay use our trails and parks. So what we can say is indeed the regional parks are well used,” Cameron said. “One thing that is really significant about this measure is the specificity of it. There are 531 different projects that will be funded by this measure.” 

Fifty of those projects will be in Tilden Park.  

The Alameda County Taxpayer’s Association, a watchdog group looking out to ensure that public agencies are not overtaxing the citizenry has come out in support of Measure K, Cameron says. 

“So that should tell you how well of a written Measure it is,” she added. 

“The District has taken a number of steps to improve its efficiency in all areas," O'Brien said. “However, continued efficiencies are unlikely to provide sufficient savings to continue developing and opening land banked properties. Therefore, a parcel tax measure is recommended as a means to seek the necessary revenue.” 

“This is really in response to our success," said Director Ted Radke of Martinez, referring to the District's ability to raise and leverage funds for land acquisition and capital improvements since passage of its open space bond Measure AA in 1988.  

The proposed tax is a dollar per month per single-family home, 69 cents per month per apartment unit. A 50 percent discount will be available for low-income seniors. K also comes with a 12 year sunset law. 

Contact reporter: 

devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

Both St. Mary’s High basketball teams received byes for the first round of the BSAL playoffs thanks to their strong regular seasons. The teams will play a second-round doubleheader at home on Thursday. 

The St. Mary’s girls will play at 6 p.m., with the boys following at approximately 8 p.m. The boys will play the winner of the St. Joseph-St. Patrick first-round game, while the girls could play any one of three playoff teams. 

The BSAL coaches also selected the all-league teams on Monday. St. Mary’s guards John Sharper and DaShawn Freeman both made the first team on the boys’ side, with Kennedy’s Devin Peal named the MVP. Chase Moore was named honorable mention for the Panthers. 

On the girls’ side, freshman Shantrell Sneed made the first team for the Panthers, with Kamaiya Warren and Meghan Leary named to the second team. Heidi Spurgeon earned honorable mention honors.

Dear Shirley: 

I demand we increase the pressure to choke off life in the Elmwood neighborhoods now! We must become Berkeley’s Urban Gray Exhaust Belt! 

It is time for the neighbors to line up behind city of Berkeley, Alta Bates, the noble UC, and the Traffic Engineering department.  

In these times of homeland defense, we must rally around our values: more traffic! more congestion! Let Fed Ex smack into UPS and cars run over bicyclists!  

Let bicyclists run over pedestrians! Let runners run over walkers! Let walkers run over wheelchairs! Support your local body shop, hospital, chiropractor and osteopath with the collateral damage of our convenient way of life. 

The Willard and Bateman neighborhoods love being trod upon. Give us more traffic! Remove those horrid barriers and give us your fueled, your speeders, your impatient in our streets! 

Plant more orange flags to frame our councillors’ beaming faces on the news while pedestrians take the hit! 

Stop trying any measure of safety to slow traffic. It is a lost cause. Put no more strain on our steering wheels! Save the over-worked souls of the traffic and planning departments who want to run more traffic up our streets over our whiny objections! They work so hard to look after us! 

We poor wretches of the lesser Elmwood get lost if we can't find a street in a straight line. That’s why we live here! Don’t confuse us! We only know how to find our way by following the roaring herd! No more turns! No more turns! 

What a brilliant idea it is to mobilize against more barriers! Alta Bates needs more E-Z in, E-Z out. UC needs E-Z-me-2! Who are we to object?  

Let the cars of the world beat a path past our doors. May we choke on the dust of crashes and the fumes of our wasted breath to change our little neighborhood for the better. What a grand view we'll have from the 50th floor of Alta Bates and its magnificent parking garage.  

The air will be so much better up there. Then the merchants will rejoice. More parking! Lots more parking! 

Sedge Thomson 

Berkeley 

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 19, the 50th day of 2002. There are 315 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals living in the United States. 

On this date: 

In 1473, the astronomer Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland. 

In 1803, Congress voted to accept Ohio’s borders and constitution. (However, Congress did not get around to formally ratifying Ohio statehood until 1953.) 

In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. (He was subsequently tried for treason and acquitted.) 

In 1846, the Texas state government was formally installed in Austin. 

In 1878, Thomas Edison received a patent for his phonograph. 

In 1881, Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. 

In 1942, about 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin. 

In 1945, during World War II, some 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima, where they began a month-long battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces. 

In 1959, an agreement was signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence. 

In 1986, the U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide, 37 years after the pact had first been submitted for ratification. 

Ten years ago: The Labor Department reported consumer prices rose by just 0.1 percent in January. Former Irish Republican Army member Joseph Doherty was deported from the United States to Northern Ireland following a 10-year battle for political asylum. 

Five years ago: Deng Xiaoping, the last of China’s major Communist revolutionaries, died. Detroit’s daily newspapers accepted a back-to-work offer from employees who’d been on strike for 19 months, but the strikers charged the conditions for return amounted to a lockout. 

One year ago: President George W. Bush opened a museum commemorating the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Movie producer-director Stanley Kramer died in Woodland Hills, Calif., at age 87. 

Today’s Birthdays: Movie director John Frankenheimer is 72. Singer Smokey Robinson is 62. Singer Bobby Rogers (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles) is 62. Actress Carlin Glynn is 62. Singer Lou Christie is 59. Actor Michael Nader is 57. Rock musician Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) is 54. Actor Jeff Daniels is 47. Talk show host Lorianne Crook is 45. Britain’s Prince Andrew is 42. Tennis Hall-of-Famer Hana Mandlikova is 40. Singer Seal is 39. Actress Justine Bateman is 36. Actor Benicio Del Toro (“Traffic”) is 35.

Editor: 

As you probably already know, the disposition of solid wastes of all kinds is a major problem in this country. Suitable dump sites are filling up and a lot of usable material is being discarded needlessly. 

Some local governments are being urged by a state policy to recycle increasingly higher amounts of waste from both homeowners and businesses. Newspapers, cardboard, glass, cans and plastic are all able to be recycled. Food has not had much consideration in current recycling. 

But some cities have organizations which collect the edible or left-over unserved food for the poor and homeless. Some grocery stores make their produce, which has a high spoilage rate, available to community groups for the same distribution to the poor. 

One of the best forms of recycling is for homeowners and restaurants to put the kitchen trimmings and table scraps, salads, vegetables and fruits that do not include meat or fat, into separate containers for composting. Composting is a natural process where the proper mix of materials turns back into a fertilizer which is very valuable for the soil. 

Participation in local recycling programs would be excellent publicity for your restaurants and would receive support from most of your diners. I think you restaurant managers should contact your local governments to see if you can participate in efforts to recycle food materials. 

Charlie Smith 

Berkeley 

Bush opens trip with discussions on Japanese economy 

TOKYO — President Bush, concerned about Japan’s recession-wracked economy, opened a three-nation Asian tour Sunday urging embattled Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to follow through on long-promised economic reforms. 

Seeking a delicate balance, the U.S. president was publicly embracing Koizumi and his agenda while privately prodding the prime minister to take the painful steps toward reversing a decade-long economic slump, aides said. Bush hopes his support will tame Koizumi’s critics. 

Key to stability in Asia, Japan has solidly supported the U.S. campaign against terrorism. 

After a seven-hour flight from Alaska, the president and first lady Laura Bush stepped off Air Force One and into a cold drizzle late Sunday afternoon. 

Communist rebels in Nepal kill 129 

KATMANDU, Nepal — Communist rebels killed at least 129 police, soldiers and civilians in unprecedented attacks in northwestern Nepal Sunday, undermining prospects for peace in this poor Himalayan kingdom still recovering from the shock of a massacre at the royal palace last year. 

The attacks on government offices and an airport were the deadliest since the rebels began fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy in 1996 from remote mountain areas in this land of exquisite beauty but violent politics. 

The rebels, who draw their inspiration from Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung, had abandoned peace talks and ended a cease-fire in November, saying negotiations had produced no results. The government declared a state of emergency three days later. 

Georgia community struggles with task of identifying bodies 

NOBLE, Ga. — Distraught families began the wrenching task of trying to identify loved ones Sunday in this rural community where dozens of decomposing corpses were being removed from a crematory. 

Authorities said they had recovered 97 bodies — including one infant — from storage sheds and scattered in woods behind Tri-State Crematory in this hamlet about 25 miles south of Chattanooga, Tenn. 

The final toll is expected to be at least 200, said Dr. Kris Sperry, Georgia’s chief medical examiner. Sixteen people have been identified so far. The discoveries began Friday when a woman walking her dog found a skull. 

“We’re just barely skimming the surface,” Sperry said. “Some of the remains are mummified.” 

Gov. Roy Barnes declared a state of emergency Saturday so local officials could receive state assistance. He visited Noble Sunday afternoon and had a private meeting with about a hundred people who believed their loved ones were at the crematory. 

Afghan leader vows stern justice for  

aviation minister’s assassins 

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan leader Hamid Karzai on Sunday vowed stern justice for high-ranking officials in his own government who he said assassinated the country’s aviation minister. 

Karzai has blamed the minister’s death on a personal vendetta among government officials despite initial reports that said he was killed by a mob of Muslim pilgrims furious over flight delays to Saudi Arabia. 

This year’s hajj — the annual pilgrimage to Mecca — has become a source of contention as the government tries to restore order in post-Taliban Afghanistan. 

Thousands of Afghans are unable to make the journey because of a lack of flights and, in the case of a U.S.-controlled airport in southern Afghanistan, delays in repairing bomb-damaged runways. 

Britain, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia sent planes to pick up thousands of pilgrims. Bad weather caused some of those planes to be diverted to the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Karachi, Karzai said. 

Israeli army objectors spark national debate on 35-year occupation, limits of protest 

JERUSALEM (AP) — It began with a modest act of defiance: In newspaper ads, 52 Israeli reserve soldiers declared last month they would no longer serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

Their number has since more than quadrupled, and has sparked a passionate debate in Israel about the limits of legitimate protest. 

For many Israelis, the soldiers’ accounts of acts of random brutality toward Palestinian civilians have also added a new urgency to resolving Israel’s most burning problem — what to do with the territories conquered in 1967. 

The protest has reinvigorated an Israeli peace camp cast adrift by the collapse of peace talks and almost 17 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. It is now regrouping under the slogan “Get out of the territories,” with many advocating a unilateral Israeli withdrawal rather than waiting for a peace deal that may never materialize. 

Lawyer told Enron how to deal with employees who report allegations 

WASHINGTON (AP) — An attorney at Enron Corp.’s outside law firm advised the company’s in-house legal counsel on how to handle employees who questioned Enron’s accounting practices, a lawmaker leading one of the congressional investigations of the company said Sunday. 

Days before the lawyer’s Aug. 24 correspondence, Enron executive Sherron Watkins had delivered a memo to then-company chairman Kenneth Lay, warning him about what she considered dubious accounting activities. 

“They’re asking the lawyers ... what happens if we fire her?” said Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. 

“It’s the ultimate in skullduggery,” said Ken Johnson, spokesman for the House committee. 

Skating scandal overshadows history-making Olympic week 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Picabo Street competed in her last Olympic race, Americans went 1-2-3 in a winter event for the first time in 46 years and a snowboarder who had a liver transplant won a bronze medal. 

Who knew, right? 

While the world was absorbed with a skating dispute that will forever stain these games, 2,500 other athletes went on with the show — their Olympic moments overshadowed by scandal. 

Now that Canadian skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier finally have their gold, athletes and fans have but one plea as the games enter their final week: Move on! 

The controversy consumed the first half of the Olympics, beginning with Monday night’s pairs competition when the Russians narrowly won the gold medal over the Canadians. 

After a week of dueling news conferences, behind-the-scenes investigations and, finally, charges that a French judge was pressured to vote for the Russians, the IOC on Friday awarded the gold to the Canadians as well. 

‘John Q’ goes public with No. 1 debut at movie theaters 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Denzel Washington, fresh off his latest Oscar nomination, found a captive audience at theaters as “John Q” debuted as the top weekend film. 

Starring Washington as a desperate dad who holds an emergency room hostage to secure a heart transplant for his dying son, the movie took in $20.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. 

Britney Spears had a solid big-screen premiere in “Crossroads,” avoiding the box-office pitfalls encountered by some pop stars — notably Mariah Carey with “Glitter” — when they cross over to film. “Crossroads” was No. 2 with $14.6 million. 

Disney’s animated “Return to Never Land,” a sequel to its classic “Peter Pan,” opened in third place with $11.8 million. 

Bruce Willis’ “Hart’s War,” a World War II POW drama, had a so-so opening of $8.3 million, coming in at No. 7. The weekend’s other new movie, the police parody “Super Troopers,” tied “Black Hawk Down” for No. 8 with $6.2 million. 

Editor: 

It’s the panel of figure skating judges, of course!  

Last week when a French judge was suspended after admitting that she had been pressured to help fix the final standings of the pairs figure skating event, it was the first public admission by the bodies that govern international skating and the Olympics that such incidents actually may take place, though the suspicion has been there for years. 

The French judge’s vote was critical. She was among five of the nine judges – amateur sport’s version of the Supreme Court – who voted to award the gold medal to the Russian duo of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. The other four judges joining her in the majority opinion were from Russia, China, Poland and the Ukraine. The minority opinion judges were from the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan. If you see a political landscape forming here, it’s not your imagination. The Cold War is apparently alive and well among Olympics judges, and the French judge appeared to have defected. 

The International Olympic Committee Friday voted to award a second gold medal to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who were the obvious winners in the court of public opinion as well in the minds of many long-time observers of the sport. 

Figure skating judging is easy to skew is because most of us don’t understand the finer points of a lutz, what makes a quality salchow or how to analyze whether a triple toe loop was performed to perfection. Ninety-nine percent of figure skating viewers know that if the skaters don’t fall or stumble, that’s good, and that if they look perky and pick good music, that’s also good. But most of us know when we hear commentators like Dick Button and Scott Hamilton critique the landing position following the triple axel, they might as well be talking about quantum physics, because we really don’t know what the heck they are talking about. 

Ah, but the judges do. They are experts. They ought to know – right? Perhaps you remember some figure skating event that you watched in the past, and you just knew that skater A had it all over skater B. But when skater B won, you just figured that those expert judges knew more than you and must have seen skater A bend her leg slightly during that camel spin. 

But now we know that we shouldn’t have mistrusted our untrained eyes so much.  

The Russian pair apparently was supposed to win last week. In the 1998 Winter Olympics at Nagano, Japan, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze fell twice and missed three other elements in their two programs and still received a silver medal for their efforts. 

Russian-born Alexander Zhulin, a 1994 Olympic silver medalist who now coaches U.S. ice dancers Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev, said deal-making to pre-determine results is rampant. 

Tom Mitsoff, 

Orange County

This weekend a documentary following the adventures and exploits of several swinging couples will premiere at Landmark's Lumiere Theatre, and selected showings will also feature a Q&A with the filmmakers Joe and Harry Gantz 

Also featured at the Friday and Saturday nights showings will be discussions with some of the film’s stars. 

Joe and Harry Gantz are Emmy award winning director/producers who established View Film, a film and television production company, in 1984. Their work explores very intimate aspect of peoples’ lives and relationships, and has been both critically and commercially successful. “With this venture they have created a continually surprising film and intimate portrayal,” said Elizabeth Einstein of ESQUIRE.  

“Sex With Strangers” offers a sexy, funny and outrageous perspective on an underground world,” she added. 

Most documentaries search for defining moments, where people reveal themselves in intimate, personal ways. This film focuses almost solely on such revelations.  

Characters James and Theresa are classic swingers who aggressively seduce couples wherever they go. Their protégé Calvin attempts to share his sexual freedom with them — and jealousy and psychodrama soon follows. 

Editor: 

Berkeley seniors enjoy a wonderful taxi scrip program. But this business of the insensitive drivers has been euphemised too long. Twenty-five dollars’ worth of so- called sensitivity training does not deal with or even acknowledge the nitty gritty of sexism-ageism.     

Why don’t we hear more complaints from men? Because most seniors are women; most low-income seniors are women; and most seniors relying on taxis are women.   

Time and again testimony at senior center meetings re taxi service-related problems have bottom-lined the drivers’ sexist-agist practices. The fact that many of the drivers are perpetuating traditions they have enjoyed abroad does not mitigate the problem. 

Helen Wheeler 

Berkeley   

Airline passengers had their airport routines sharply altered after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and now the way they’re protected has changed as well. 

The new Transportation Security Administration took over responsibility for airline security Sunday, the first step toward a system where better-trained, higher-paid federal employees screen passengers and luggage. 

The new system received two early tests Monday. 

At Los Angeles International Airport, an inactive Army National Guardsman tried to pass an nonfunctioning military explosive through airport security and was arrested. A screener became concerned after noticing the device, which resembled an M-80 firecracker, said Sgt. Greg Glodery of the Los Angeles Police Department. A Federal Aviation Administration official said the device was found in the man’s carry-on luggage. 

At New York’s La Guardia Airport, a flight that had left for Cleveland was forced to return after it was discovered that one passenger had not been properly screened, FAA spokesman Laura Brown said in Washington. A concourse was evacuated and passengers were screened again after the flight returned. 

Tanie Guy, an Oracle Corp. employee, now arrives two hours early at the airport. “They’re a bit stricter, to say the least,” he said before going through the security checkpoint en route to San Francisco. 

“If a private organization does it, they’re looking to make money so they’re cutting costs and cutting corners in order to make money,” said Brandon Buhai of Chicago, departing O’Hare Airport, also for San Francisco. “You hope cost is not as much of a concern to the government.” 

Travelers said security changes weren’t dramatic.

SAN FRANCISCO — To minimize the pain of buying lottery ticket duds, people often console each other, saying at least the lost money goes to a good cause: public schools. 

Despite advertisements that once hailed the lottery as a major solution to California’s education funding woes, however, lottery revenues cover less than 2 percent of the state’s education budget. 

The lottery funneled nearly $1 billion to schools last year. That translates to about $144 per student from the lottery, but only 1.8 percent of the state K-12 education budget.When the lottery started in the mid-1980s, advertisements billed it as vehicle through which to aid poorly funded schools.  

SACRAMENTO — For three decades, the legal right to abortion has been a fundamental cornerstone of American life. 

Suddenly, however, despite polls showing it near the bottom of voters’ concerns, abortion tops the agenda for the California’s March 5 Republican primary for governor. 

During their debate Feb. 13, the top three GOP candidates bickered about abortion, which Democratic Gov. Gray Davis injected into the race with a series of attack ads claiming Republican former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan is soft in his support of abortion rights. 

All of that comes in a state where, experts say, the governor has a limited practical effect on the issue. 

California history, since Gov. Ronald Reagan signed California’s first abortion rights law in 1967, and the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion, shows years of such abrasive abortion politics. Lately, it’s grown quieter with time and establishment of legal precedents. 

“It has changed quite a bit over the years. In the 1970s and 1980s there were tons and tons of anti-abortion legislation,” said David Alois, electoral affairs director for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. 

Though legislators wrangled incessantly during those decades over publicly funded abortions and parental consent issues, California’s courts largely set the rules. In 2000, the state reported approximately 87,000 abortions. 

Only one governor, Republican George Deukmejian from 1983 to 1991, maintained an active anti-abortion agenda. Yet his attempts to deny Medi-Cal funding for abortions and require minors to get parental or court permission first repeatedly failed. 

A bill Deukmejian signed in 1987 requiring parental consent faced an immediate injunction by a San Francisco Superior Court. Nine years later the California Supreme Court sided with Deukmejian, ruling 4-3 that requiring parental consent was constitutional. One year later a new court — with two new appointees by moderate Republican Gov. Pete Wilson — voted 4-3 to reverse the decision. 

Wilson and the Legislature also ended 12 consecutive years of budget amendments banning Medi-Cal funding for abortions. State courts had quashed them all. Wilson also ended Deukmejian’s practice of banning the funding in his proposed budgets. 

Activists on both sides of the abortion debate said courts are why a governor’s race matters. 

“Obviously, the judicial appointments are always key,” said Jan Carroll, legislative analyst for the California ProLife Council. 

While campaign insiders defend their abortion strategies and activists on both sides of the issue follow them closely, outsiders shake their heads. 

“That Davis ad is crazy. It goes way too far,” said Paul Milbury, a Glendale businessman who sells historic guns to collectors. Milbury, who calls himself “anti-abortion,” said, “Everything in government now is strictly emotional. They always try to scare us.” 

Davis’ attacks make “it sound like Riordan’s a rabid anti-abortionist, and I don’t see him that way,” Milbury said. “And again, he’s not going to be doing anything about abortion even if he was. It’s a federal issue.” 

At Phoenix Books in San Luis Obispo, owner Bruce Miller called it more “dogma to divide the world between Republicans and Democrats.” He described himself as “pro-choice.” 

Indeed, for the sudden insistence on a “litmus test” for abortion, as Republican candidate Bill Simon complained last Wednesday, the level of interest of voters in abortion is minimal, polls show. 

The state’s newest Field Poll, released the day of the Republican debate, showed abortion ranked 25th among 28 issues that voters care about. Nearly four in 10 of 1,022 people polled said they were “not concerned” about abortion. 

Health care and schools topped the list. 

Field pollster Mark DiCamillo said Davis created the abortion issue with TV ads to push it into the Republican primary. The strategy, he said, could be called “cynical,” but it puts Republican candidates into a “no-win” situation over an issue that divides their party. Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar admitted that issues of education, health, public safety and transportation are more important to people than abortion.

PHOENIX — When Rick Piper wants to reward his 6-year-old, he says only one place will do. 

It has everything his boy could want — food, toys, clothing accessories and often same-sized friends to mingle with inside or outside the store. 

“We come at least once a month,” said Piper. “Anytime I want to get him all excited, I just have to say four words: Wanna go to PETsMART?” 

Piper, a local office worker, and his beloved border collie Rocky are exactly the customers PETsMART had in mind when the company opened its first pet supplies store here 15 years ago. 

The Phoenix-based retailing giant — whose motto is “Where pets are family” — now has more than 560 superstores across the United States and Canada, catering to all kinds of animals and the humans who adore them. 

A recent push by PETsMART to remodel most of its outlets and an added emphasis on in-store customer service also is paying off. 

After posting losses in 2001, the company’s stock has climbed nearly 188 percent in the past year with shares quadrupling in price, from $2.50 last March to almost $11 in recent weeks. 

Third-quarter earnings this year were at $5.8 million on sales of nearly $599 million, up 11 percent from the same period in 2001. 

Fourth-quarter earnings will be announced in mid-March. PETsMART Chairman and Chief Executive Phil Francis said the numbers should be strong again since “the fourth quarter is typically our best quarter.” 

A major factor in the upswing is the remodeling of PETsMART’s old stores — doing away with a warehouse look in favor of boldly decorated outlets with supplies neatly organized for pets ranging from cats and dogs to fish, birds and reptiles. 

Francis said more than 200 stores have been remodeled so far with another 180 targeted for next year. There also are plans for more new stores. 

“By November of 2003, we’ll have about 600 stores and all of them will be in the format we’ve recently gone to,” Francis said. “We think the store count we can eventually get to in North America is 1,100.” 

Analysts say PETsMART’s growth plan is not far-fetched despite the slowing national economy 

“The pet industry is almost recession resistant,” said David Mann, an analyst for New Orleans-based Johnson Rice & Co. “There’s a good tailwind behind the industry and it’s growing at a pretty healthy pace. It’s being helped by multiple-pet households. 

“I could see PETsMART growing by several hundred more stores. They have a new store format that’s very attractive.” 

Full-service pet styling salons now offer everything from baths to toenail trimming and teeth cleaning. 

PETsMART also has obedience classes and some stores provide veterinary care through animal hospitals and wellness clinics. 

And for those wanting to adopt a cat or dog, PETsMART has placed more than 1 million pets in new homes through its in-store adoption centers. 

“The main thrust of our business is the stores and the store customers,” Francis said. 

He said the company has changed the tone of its service. 

“Our e-commerce division is no longer a separate business. We’ve folded it in and integrated it. The Web site is still alive and you can still get information and some limited shopping there, but our main business is the stores. 

“We used to sell just food and stuff for pets,” said Francis. “Now, we think of ourselves as helping pet parents provide total lifetime care.” 

PETsMART began with just two stores in Phoenix in 1987. It expanded to Colorado and Texas the following year; then to California, Nevada, New Mexico, Missouri, Illinois and Oklahoma by 1991; and to Utah, Georgia, Florida and Idaho the next year. 

The company went public in 1993, raising more than $125 million through its initial stock sales. By year’s end, it had 107 stores in 19 states. 

Then came huge expansion years in 1994 and 1995 when PETsMART bought 29 PETZAZZ stores in five Midwestern states, 60 Petstuff superstores in the eastern United States and Canada; and The Pet Food Giant’s 10 superstores in New Jersey, Long Island and Philadelphia. 

PETsMART also acquired two worldwide catalog retailers — one for pet supplies and accessories and the other for discount brand-name tack, riding apparel and equine supplies. 

In 1999, the company launched its Web site and opened its 500th store. 

PETsMART’s biggest competitor is San Diego-based Petco Animal Supplies Inc., which was founded in 1965 and has 560 stores in 41 states and the District of Columbia. 

Petco also sells goods online and is seeking to become a publicly traded company again after losing $16 million for the 12 months ending Nov. 3 despite $1.3 billion in sales. 

Mann said PETsMART and Petco represent “a dual-opoly where both major players are doing well and there is not a third or fourth player going.” 

Francis said his company’s focus is just “doing a better job of taking care of the pet parent” and not worrying about Petco. 

Customers like Steven McDaniel have noticed. The Phoenix accountant has gone to both superstores to comparison shop and takes his business to PETsMART. 

“The prices are cheaper and the people are much friendlier,” McDaniel said as his dog made its way toward the PETsMART doors.

HARTFORD, Conn. — When shareholders of The Walt Disney Co. meet here Tuesday, they will be treated to a show as carefully written and rehearsed as a Broadway play. 

More than 1,000 shareholders and their guests will view clips from upcoming Disney movies, watch the quirky, funny commercials used to advertise sports network ESPN and be greeted as they enter the Hartford Civic Center by Mickey, Minnie and other Disney characters. 

But the well-planned Disney magic will likely not be enough to soothe shareholders, who have seen their stock languish in recent years and want to know what their company plans to do about it. 

Disney chief executive Michael Eisner and other executives know the questions will be tough and are prepared to answer them. 

“Are the shareholders better off today? Yes. Are they richer? No. Will they be richer going forward? Yes,” said Disney spokesman John Dreyer, summarizing the comments Eisner intends to deliver. 

“It doesn’t work to point out the tremendous value creation during most of the years since 1984 nor the enormous growth of Disney to become a worldwide media company,” wrote Eisner, who joined the company in 1984. The company has also been the subject of rumors about Eisner’s leadership and Disney’s status as a possible takeover target, given its lagging share price. Both Eisner and President Robert Iger did not receive bonuses this year because the company failed to reach certain financial targets. Still, analysts say the current management team still has time to turn the company around before Eisner’s job is called into question. 

A relatively new and surprisingly innovative scam targeting residences has been discovered where thieves steal checks, then blot out the pay to the order of line with ink remover. This allows them to fill in the line with whatever name they want and makes it fairly difficult to trace down the culprit, police say. 

The Berkeley Police Department was first made aware of this scam approximately a month ago and has notified area neighborhood associations to make their members aware. The police say that bills should and checks should not be left in mailboxes where thieves may get at them, and if anything unusual is noticed they should notify the authorities as well as their bank immediately. 

Many residents, however, remain unaware of the potential threat. 

Berkeley resident Charles Fountain, who is not a member of any neighborhood association said he had not heard of any such scam.  

“I haven’t heard about it, but I don’t leave checks out in the mailbox anyway,” Fountain said.  

The ink remover is typically bought online but is also available at specialty arts and crafts stores. 

Berkeley retailers Decorated Paper and Amsterdam Art say the supplies are often bought for people who want to remove resistant ink from surfaces. They were unaware of the scam as well. They have not noticed any pick up in the purchase of the ink, a spokes people from both retailers said. 

A quick Internet search, however, revealed several places where the ink remover could be purchased.  

FirstGov for Consumers, a federal advocacy group with a we site that offers information about various potential threats, have already looked into these scams and say they do not think it is as new as it appears. 

“The ink remover has been on the market at specialty stores for some time now,” said James Dell of the Consumer Sentinel. “It’s really a natural adjunct to identity theft which is rampant as you know on the Internet.” 

The Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse, a federal government database for tracking, says complaints have been lodged there about lost or stolen checks that have come back to account holders chased. 

They also stated that perhaps not so many people know about the potential threat is because many of these types of crimes increase in prevalence with notoriety. 

“Sometimes news stories and alerts and warnings succeed more in turning lights on the mind’s of criminals then helping the potential victims,” Dell said. “It’s a balancing game. When the complaints get to a certain level, then it’s time to alert consumers and quick.” 

The Consumer Sentinel now contains more than 100,000 complaints. The Clearinghouse information provides law enforcement agencies with a broad range of complaints, allowing them to spot patterns of illegal activity. 

Another purposed of The Clearinghouse is to enable policy makers and to get a sense of the extent of the types of theft that is taking place. 

Contact reporter: 

devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net 

A miraculous goal at the end of regulation wasn’t quite enough to get the Berkeley High boys’ soccer team past Castro Valley in the North Coast Section quarterfinals on Saturday night, as the ’Jackets fell on penalty kicks. 

Castro Valley goalkeeper Ryan Jimenez stopped three of Berkeley’s five attempts during the final tiebreaker, giving his team a 2-1 win. Jimenez also made 12 saves in the game. 

Berkeley barely made it to overtime. Down 1-0 since Alex Cameron’s header goal in the 21st minute of the game, the ’Jackets grew increasingly desperate late in the second half, pushing more players to the front with every attack. They finally broke through during injury time, as a Liam Reilly throw-in landed in the Castro Valley goalmouth. Several players hacked at the ball, and it ended up at the feet of Berkeley’s Willie Vega, who slammed it into the back of the net for a last-gasp tie. 

“My players were pretty down after (Berkeley) tied the game, but they fought through it,” Castro Valley head coach Al Peacock said. “For them to maintain their composure was all I could ask for.” 

Vega nearly crushed the Trojans’ hopes in the first overtime period, curling a shot over Jimenez that hit the underside of the crossbar and away from the goal. 

Berkeley dominated the next extra period as well, as Jimenez made two saves and Berkeley defender Chris Darby bounced a header off of the post. 

“Their goalkeeper was the difference today, but I’ll tell you what: the post was his best friend,” Berkeley head coach Janu Juarez said. “How many balls did was have go off the frame?” 

The ’Jackets knew they would be at a disadvantage in a shootout, as Jimenez, who will play at Sacramento State next year, is considered one of the best goalkeepers in the state. 

“We beat them in every aspect except the shootout,” Berkeley senior Chris Davis said. “But we knew that if it came down to that, it would be tough for us to win. I know Ryan, and he’s tough to beat.” 

The ’Jackets were hampered by the field conditions, with a torrential downpour an hour before the game turning the surface into a quagmire. The Berkeley players, used to their home Astroturf, looked as if they were playing on skates for much of the game. 

Berkeley outshot Castro Valley 18-10 in the game, but in the end they just didn’t finish enough of their chances. As the 10th seed in the playoffs, few expected them to win a game, much less take the second-seeded Trojans to penalty kicks. 

“Sometimes the best team doesn’t win,” Berkeley defender Victor Mendoza said. 

But Juarez had a different take on the outcome. 

“There are no sour grapes here. The best team is the one advances,” Juarez said. “That means they’re the better team tonight. But make no mistake: we took them to the mat.” 

There was no shortage of teary eyes on the Berkeley sideline after the game, especially on the outgoing seniors. Davis, who plans to play at Brown University next year, said this year’s team was a special one. 

“I’ve been playing soccer year-round for the last 12 years, and this is the best season I’ve ever had,” Davis said. “I love everybody on this team.”

Editor: 

On 1/30 I attended a City planning design meeting at the Claremont Library (re.the Hillegass Bicycle Boulevard).  

City staff along with Berkeley's Bicycle Talaban and a few assertive anti car residents have completed a plan to install 6 right turn only control devices at Ashby on Benvenue, Hillegass and Regent in both directions. 

Additionally large circles will be installed at Channing, Parker & Stuart intersections of Hillegass.  

Also two, one-lane only, hour glass shaped chokers are to go in the middle of Stuart-Russell & Webster-Woolsey blocks of Hillegass.  

This and more is happening in the name of bicycle safety on a quiet benign street that most cyclists avoid.  

We use Regent or Benvenue instead!  

The most alarming of all these ridiculous street de-construction plans being advanced by the anti-car extremists is the approved plan to reduce Telegraph to one lane in each direction from UC to Broadway.  

It's called the AC Transit MIS express bus lane plan.  

Along with the loss of 2 travel lanes most (40-50) center left turn safety pocket lanes will also be eliminated. Also the center of Telegraph will have a continuous median for blocks, preventing vehicles from turning left or crossing it except at Ashby, Alcatraz, 51rst. ST, etc. 

Telegraph conducts at least 60-70,000 cars a day. It works exceedingly well considering its narrow configuration. 

It is the Mississippi of the South Campus-North Oakland area. This express bus lane experiment will bring permanent congestion and gridlock to the whole area.  

It is interesting that most residents, merchants and property owners, aren't even aware of this destructive plan. 

Rob Pratt,  

Coalition to Save Telegraph 

Monday, Feb. 18 

BART Operates Regular Saturday  

Service for “President’s Day," 

Beginning at 6 a.m. until midnight on all five lines. 465-2278. 

 

The East Bay Coalition Against the War 

Movie/Speaker and Discussion Night 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Fellowship of Humanity  

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will show the Noam Chomsky Video on 9/11 and the War on Terror. Plus guest speaker, Denny Riley, Vietnam Veteran and a member of the Veterans Speaker's Alliance. The film and speaker will take about one to one and a half hours. The rest of the time will be devoted to small and large group discussion about our current struggle in response to "the war on terrorism." 

 

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Tuesday, Feb. 19

 

 

Berkeley Garden Club  

Hosts “Crystal Palaces” 

1 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

Ann Cunningham, author of “Crystal Palaces” will present slides of glass houses from the turn of the century to the present. Scott Medburry, Director Strybing Arboretum & Botanic Garden, will talk about the history of San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers including an update on its recent renovation. 524-4374. 

 

21st Century McCarthyism & The Rise of the Global Police State 

6 - 8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Wheeler Auditorium 

The following speakers present their interpretations of September 11 and its aftermath: Angela Davis, Diane Clemens and Jennifer Terry. Sponsored by the Departments of Women's Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, & Ethnic Studies, and Professors for Peace. xperales@uclink.berkeley.edu. 

 

Pioneering Woman Federal Judge 

4:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Room 100 

The Hon. Mary M. Schroeder, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, speaks on "Justice and Mercy." Inaugural event of American Constitution Society for Law & Policy, Boalt Hall Chapter. 642-1741, amconstsoc@law.berkeley.edu. 

 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

 

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Wednesday, Feb. 20

 

Staying Connected: Building A Secular Jewish Life 

7:30 - 9:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

An evening of discussion and song with a Klezmer/Yiddish musician. $5. 848-0237 x 127 

 

Institute of Government Studies 

4 p.m. 

119 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

Gerald Gamm lectures as part of the Historical Institutionalism Seminar. 642-4608, www.igs.berkeley.edu 

 

Colonial Courts, African Conflicts,  

and the End of Slavery in the French Souda 

4 - 6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley  

3335 Dwinelle, Level "C" 

A talk by Richard Roberts of Stanford University. Sponsored by Department of History, Department of African-American Studies, and Center for African Studies. 642-8338. 

 

Cultural Competency in Healthcare 

6 - 7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley YWCA  

2600 Bancroft Way 

Racial Justice Lecture Series and discussion on overcoming ethnic and gender differences to deliver healthcare in under-served populations. 848-6370, www.ywca-berkeley.org. 

 

East Bay Job Fair 

noon - 6 p.m. 

Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center 

10 10th St., Oakland 

The United Way of the Bay Area, Economic Development Alliance for Business, and Bay Area Works are hosting a job fair. Free and open to everyone. 238-2410, www.uwba.org.  

 

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Thursday, Feb. 21

 

Barbara Lee 

8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

145 Dwinelle Hall 

Rep. Barbara Lee will be on campus. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club and the Center on Politics. 642-9355, www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

 

Purim Lecture 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Discover the deeper meaning of Purim as Rabbi Alexander Sheinfeld uses the lens of Kabbalah to explore what Purim has to do with being Jewish and with being human. $10, $8 members. 848-0237 x127 

 

Zimbabwe Wildlife 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Julie Edwards of Rhino Girl Safaris gives a slide presentation showcasing Zimbabwe’s remarkable variety of birds and mammals, and discusses the future of wildlife and the safari industry in Africa. 527-7377 

 

Travel Photography Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

An intensive workshop that focuses on travel photography, with an emphasis on film and equipment security, light and weather conditions, methods to make the most of well-known sites, and ways to approach and photograph strangers. $15. 843-3533 

 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

"TV and Media” - Several people who have given up their TV's will talk about the difficulties and benefits. 549-3509, www.seeds of simplicity.org. 

 

Take the Terror Out of Talking 

noon - 1:10 p.m. 

Calif. Dept. Health Services 

2151 Berkeley Way 

Room 804 

State Health Toastmasters Club is presenting a six-week Speechcraft workshop to help you overcome your fear of speaking in public and improve your communication skills. Cost is $36 for six sessions, Feb. 21, 28 & March 7, 14, 21. 649-7750. 

 

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Friday, Feb. 22

 

 

Grand Canyon Splendor: Rafting the Colorado 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author and former river guide, Tyler Williams, presents the dramatic beauty of the Grand Canyon in his slide presentation on rafting the Colorado. 527-7377 

 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Short stories. 232-1351. 

 

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Saturday, Feb. 23

 

 

Archaeological Institute of America 

3 p.m. 

Shorb House 

2547 Channing Way 

Lecture by Dr. Stuart Swiny discussing Cypriot rituals surrounding fertility, life and death from the Neolithic to the Roman era. 415-338-1537, barbaram@sfsu.edu. 

 

Paying for Public Education: 

Whose Job Is It? 

3 - 5:30 p.m. 

Ocean View Elementary School 

Multi-Purpose Room 

1000 Jackson St., Albany 

A forum with Kevin Gordon of the Education Coalition, who will explain state-level funding for K-12 schools. Candidates for the California Assembly 14th District seat Debate: Dave Brown (D), Loni Hancock (D), and Charles Ramsey (D). 524-7004, hao_kco@pacbell.net.  

 

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Monday, Feb. 25

 

 

A Rose Grew in Brooklyn: Stories from a Jewish Girlhood 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Local author and therapist, Rose Fox reads from her memoir. 

 

Institute of Government Studies 

12 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Campus 

John Matsasuka presents a lecture entitled “For the Many or the Few" 

642-4608  

 

 

 

 

A male sexuality class at University of California, Berkeley has been suspended after reports of lurid extracurricular activities surfaced late last week. The suspension of the class, run by students and sponsored by the university, was announced Friday.  

Students who had taken part in the two-unit course said several of their classmates were involved in an orgy at a class party and that another group of students chose to go to a strip club for their final project. 

At the club the students looked on as one of their student instructors had sex on stage, a student said.  

At a party held to introduce the students, some took Polaroid pictures of their genitals to show that their bodies were not disgusting, UC Berkeley freshman Christy Kovacs told the Sacramento Bee. 

An incredulous university administration quickly pulled the plug on the “democratic education” or “de-cal” course. Such courses are sponsored but not funded by the university. 

UC Berkeley spokeswoman Marie Felde confirmed the male sexuality class had been suspended after the student instructors failed to attend a meeting with a university official. A similar female sexuality course was also under review, Felde said Caren Kaplan, chair of the Woman’s Studies Department and sponsor of the sexuality classes, reviewed the course description but had not seen a detailed syllabus, said a university spokesperson. 

SEATTLE – C.J. Massingale matched a career high with 25 points to give the Washington Huskies a 75-60 upset victory over California Saturday night.  

The victory snapped a four-game winning streak for the Bears.  

With Arizona losing earlier in the day, a California victory would have given the Bears a share of the Pac-10 lead. Instead, California stays one game back with four remaining before the conference tournament.  

The Bears, the top defensive team in the conference, kept the Huskies’ top scorer Doug Wrenn to two points on a pair of free throws in the first half.  

Wrenn, who had led Washington in scoring in each of its previous 11 games, finished with six points and did not make a field goal until 7:15 left in the game.  

Washington (9-16, 3-12 Pac-10) led 38-33 after Massingale scored the Huskies’ first seven points of the second half, but the Bears responded with a 12-0 run that gave them a 45-38 advantage with 14:13 left in the game.  

The Huskies regained the lead at 53-51 on a 3-pointer by Curtis Allen with 9:06 to play. From that point on, Washington never trailed.  

Allen put the game away by scoring the Huskies’ final eight points on free throws in the final minute. Allen and Grant Leep finished with 12 points apiece.  

California (18-6, 9-5) failed to post its first five-game Pac-10 winning streak since they won six straight in 1997.  

The Bears were led by Joe Shipp’s 15 points. Tashaan Forehan-Kelly had 12, and Solomon Hughes added 11.  

The game was tied at 10 six minutes into the contest before the Bears scored the next eight points. The run was stopped when Washington’s Erroll Knight hit a 3-pointer, cutting the Bears’ lead to 18-13 with 11:35 remaining in the half.  

The Huskies’ final basket of the half was a layin from Leep after an 18-foot no-look pass from Allen with 16 seconds remaining. It gave Washington a 31-29 lead at the break.  

The Huskies’ success or failure in these final weeks of the season may factor into coach Bob Bender’s job security. His team had lost eight of its previous nine games. The Huskies desperately want to avoid losing 20 games three seasons in a row.  

Washington is sitting in ninth place in the conference, one game behind Oregon State. The Huskies play the Beavers on Thursday in a game that may determine which team gets the eighth and final spot in the conference tournament.

Editor: 

To make Bus Rapid Transit work, we should remove cars from Telegraph between Bancroft and Dwight.  

We can do this without tangling up traffic if we make Dwight Way two-way, instead of making Durant two-way as the southside traffic study recommends. 

The MTC has approved funding for a Bus Rapid Transit line that would run from San Leandro to downtown Oakland, on Telegraph Ave. to the UC Campus, and around the campus to downtown Berkeley. BRT would cut the time the bus currently takes by about a third, by providing bus-only lanes, by allowing buses to preempt traffic signals, and by taking other measures to speed up buses. 

What do we want to happen when the bus-only lane on Telegraph reaches Dwight Way?  

Do we want the buses to fight with the current traffic on Telegraph, which is sometimes so congested that you can walk faster than people drive? 

To make Bus Rapid Transit effective, we should close Telegraph to cars between Bancroft and Dwight, and allow only buses, delivery vehicles, and service and emergency vehicles to drive there. 

As Mayor Dean has said, we should be careful to do this in a way that does not cause congestion. Currently, traffic does become congested when we close Telegraph for street fairs, because all the traffic is routed up 

Dwight Way and congests the southside streets above Telegraph. 

Making Dwight two-way would reduce congestion by dispersing traffic.  

When drivers on Telegraph reach Dwight, some would go up Dwight, and some would go down Dwight and continue north through downtown.  

This would give drivers a more direct north-bound route than they now have when Telegraph is closed for street fairs. 

Making Dwight two-way would also reduce traffic in the Claremont and Elmwood neighborhoods. Traffic that begins near campus above Telegraph would be able to drive down Dwight and travel south on Telegraph, rather than driving through the Waring-Belrose corridor, as they do now. 

The southside traffic study has shown that we can close Telegraph to cars and convert two of the one-way streets to two-way traffic. There are obvious benefits to converting Bancroft and Dwight to two-way traffic, instead of Bancroft and Durant. 

Charles Siegel 

Berkeley 

While many veteran teachers hobble toward retirement, Rita Davies seems to be sprinting — and she is still vigorously devoted to her teaching career. Known in and around the Berkeley Unified School District as an advocate of the arts, Davies focus in teaching goes, like art, straight to the heart.  

Davies says she is intent on providing a “family place” for children at school.  

The deeper the sense of community the classroom can build, the more potential there is for learning, she says. 

Throughout her adolescence, she carried heavy responsibilities because her mother was severely ill. But there was a teacher who kept constant watch over her — and she remembers the sound of that teacher’s cane and step, cane and step, as she approached to offer supports.  

It is this kind of caring that Davies says she attempts to duplicate in her work.  

“Love is essential,” she says. “It’s the core of my curriculum.”  

Davies does not mean being sweet, instead she means being open, honest and nurturing, being ‘right there’ for the child and the child’s family. 

Born in Wales, Davies moved as a child to London where her father worked as an electrical engineer. The only one of his family who wasn’t a coal miner, he passed on his ability to think ‘out of the mold’ to his daughter.  

She earned her college degree from London University, then worked in London under Henry Pluckrose at an “Open Plan” school. Pluckrose’s educational practice revolved around providing all the arts to children, painting, music, drama, poetry – all creative things as a way to deeply involve children in their own education. With Pluckrose there was a “god forbid” attitude if you didn’t teach the arts. 

Davies initiated and organized an integrated studies program that covered not just traditional “academic” subjects but the arts as well, organized around a common theme.  

“I didn’t know how to do it any other way,” Davies says. She used her environment, including St. Paul’s Cathedral and the London Tower for study focuses.  

In the ‘60s when teachers in California were studying British Infant Schools, Davies was invited to the States to demonstrate how integrated curriculum instruction worked. She liked it so much in California that she came back to work. Herb Kohl, author of books about teaching, including Thirty Six Children, helped her locate in the Mendocino County Schools.  

For six years, she worked at the Mendocino Grammar School teaching fourth and fifth grades. Her principal, Dick Jaulus, supported the development of curriculum that made everything connect for the kids. 

Luckily for Berkeley, Davies eventually moved here and was hired by Frank Fischer, a progressive Berkeley principal. 

Davies has been in the Berkeley schools ever since.  

But the emphasis on integrated curriculum shifted in California schools to a greater push for skills. Bitter debates raged through educational circles and many California teachers have been cautioned against using integrated theme approaches to teaching.  

Davies feels a “just the skills” route is detrimental to the education of the whole child. She quotes a character from Charles Dickens who emphasized “Facts, Facts, Facts” as the best approach to education and who had students memorize and quote all the facts about a horse.  

“If we don’t reach children,” Davies says, “if the curriculum is not part of their soul, it will just drift away.” 

Davies capitalizes on both love for information and a love for the arts.  

Her work, focused on themes and integrated curriculum, includes skill instruction as a part of a comprehensible whole. Right now, she and educator-parents from the Lawrence Hall of Science develop thematic units collaboratively. Her ideas of collaboration envelop parents and colleagues alike.  

Davies and other teachers at Oxford school are involved in a “Lesson Study” method based on a Japanese model of collaborative exploration of teaching processes. It involves planning together, observing lessons in each other’s rooms and holding discussions that focus on what the teachers want to accomplish and ways of doing it. 

Davies, never content to work just at the classroom level, has given leadership to the District developing district wide Family Art Nights. With the help of several teachers, she arranged a variety of art projects for families to participate in. There were, for example, tin foil sculptures, doll making, calligraphy and always a giant mural down the middle of the cafeteria where parents, grandparents and children painted to their hearts content. Arts nights were mobbed by Berkeley families who loved creating together. 

Davies roots are now firmly planted in Berkeley. She and her partner, Barbara Phillips, have bought a house in the Westbrae area. Her next goal is to study art full time.  

Senior second baseman Carson White knocked in the game-winning RBI with no outs in the bottom of the ninth to lead Cal to a 4-3 victory over Long Beach State Sunday at Evans Diamond. 

The Bears improved to 5-6, while the No. 21 ranked 49ers fell to 4-2. 

Freshman center fielder David Nicholson started off the bottom of the ninth for Cal with a single off of 49er reliever Chris Demaria and advanced to second on an error by Long Beach State shortstop Kevin Randel. David Weiner advanced Nicholson to third with a bunt and then White won the game with a ball hit over 49er right fielder Nick Covarrubias. 

The winning pitcher for the Bears was reliever Jesse Ingram (2-2), who pitched two innings with no hits, no runs, no walks and a strikeout. Ingram had replaced Cal starter Matt Brown (seven innings, eighth hits, three runs, two walks, one strikeout).  

Cal was down 3-0, but sophomore shortstop Jeff Dragicevich got the Bears within 3-2 with a two-run homer in the fourth inning. Cal tied the game, 3-3, in the seventh on an RBI single by sophomore third baseman Conor Jackson. 

“This was a huge win for us,” Cal head coach David Esquer said. “Matt Brown did a great job for us and gave us a chance to win. He kept us in the ballgame. We did a good job of hanging in there.

Representative Lee: 

I am one of the 40% of Berkeley residents who did NOT approve of your “lonely vote” against war powers for the President (or whatever it was; I'm still confused on that). 

But I suggest you repeat your performance, this time on an issue likely to be approved by both your earlier supporters and people like me. 

Sponsor a Congressional resolution which tells the DEA what to do about medical Marijuana and Hemp. 

As you know, the DEA has already raided medical marijuana outlets in San Francisco.  

It won't be long before the DEA comes to bother Berkeley. 

Californians voted to legalize medical use of marijuana, but “states rights” mean nothing to the Big Bushy Fed. 

TIME had a recent article about DEA plans to stop use of hemp for clothing, rope and other utility things, because hemp contains a tiny bit of THC. 

Challenges to all this DEA dumb-ness are going to the courts. That's wrong. 

The courts shouldn't be deciding these things. Congress should. Tell DEA to stop their marijuana persecutions, and concentrate on crack or whatever. 

How about another "lonely vote", Rep. Lee? 

It will make even more of us feel good. 

Steve Geller 

Berkeley

INGLEWOOD — Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan issued a call for racial and religious unity on Sunday and condemned the U.S. war on terrorism, saying “there’s a lot of ugliness in America the beautiful, ugliness that can be turned into beauty.” 

Farrakhan combined moral teachings with a long history on what he described as U.S. oil politics during a 2 1/2-hour keynote speech to thousands of followers at the Forum in Inglewood. The speech capped the Saviour’s Day annual convention, marking the birth of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. 

The convention, which carried the theme “Healing The Wounds To Bring About A Universal Family,” was held for the first time outside of Chicago, where the Nation of Islam is headquartered. 

Farrakhan, whose black empowerment message in years past has included inflammatory remarks about Jews and Christians, urged unity and condemned religiously inspired violence. 

“I’m a Jew, I’m a Christian, and I’m a Muslim,” Farrakhan said. 

He also called on Hispanics, American Indians and other ethnic groups to unite in destroying racism by achieving success. 

“You kill it with excellence from the darker people of the world,” he said. 

He also urged Americans to speak out against the policies of the Bush administration, contending that a “shadow government” has controlled U.S. foreign policy and predicting that the administration was preparing to wage war in Iraq. 

In his State of the Union address last month, Bush said North Korea and the Muslim states of Iraq and Iran represent an “axis of evil.” 

In a long history lesson illustrated with maps flashed on the stadium’s giant TV screens, Farrakhan argued that the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, along with other Middle Eastern and African conflicts, were instigated by the United States because of its “insatiable appetite” for oil. 

“If the truth were known, there would be a Nuremberg trial for American presidents,” he said. “I cannot allow them to use the American solider, black, brown and poor white, to fight a war that is unjust and wrong.” 

Farrakhan said that true patriots should speak out against bad policies and said U.S. foreign policy could ignite more hatred of the United States. 

No Muslim leader would be capable of uniting the world’s Muslims in a holy war against America, Farrakhan said, but the Bush administration “can summon the whole Muslim world against the West by how you prosecute this war (in Afghanistan).” 

Celebrities attending the speech included Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, and clergy from various religions. 

Senior center Ami Forney posted her second double-double of the weekend in a competitive loss by Cal to visiting Washington, 64-53, Saturday afternoon in its final home game at Haas Pavilion in front of 1,447 fans. 

Forney posted 10 points and 11 rebounds to record her sixth double-double of the season and 13th of her career on Senior Day in Berkeley. Cal’s other senior, guard Janet Franey, played in the final minute of the game for the Bears. 

“Today showed the incredible strides that we have made all year,” said California head coach Caren Horstmeyer. “It’s tough that you don’t get the win. Maybe I’ve said that before, but things have come together. I guess what’s most important to me is the team really believed in themselves. The bottom line is that the team did a lot of things in the year that they’ve struggled with. They have every reason to hold their heads up high. I thought we did an incredibly good defensive job.” 

A month ago, the Bears (7-18, 2-14 Pac-10) suffered their worst defeat of the season to the Huskies, 85-46, in Seattle. But today was an entirely different story, as the young Bears continued to show improvement as they have all year. 

After Washington went up 14-6 four minutes into the game, Cal responded with an 11-0 run to go up 19-14 with 12:06 left in the first half. The run was keyed by four points from sophomore guard LaTasha O’Keith and Cal’s lone three-pointer of the day, courtesy of freshman guard Jackie Lord. 

Cal took its biggest lead of the game at 26-20 and 28-22 with 6:30 until the break. But the Huskies finished the half strong on a 14-5 run with seven players scoring, spurring the Huskies to a 36-33 score at the half. Freshman guard Leigh Gregory scored all 11 of her points in the first half to pace the Bears, while Andrea Lalum paced Washington with all 10 of her game points. 

In the second half, the two teams stayed within five points of each other and were tied at the 10:50 mark at 42-42 following a Cal basket from redshirt freshman forward Kiki Williams. Washington then distanced itself from Cal with a 14-0 run. Down 56-42, Cal dug in and made one final run, but the Bears could only get as close as six at 59-53. 

After four-straight games shooting 70 percent or better from the foul line, Cal struggled this afternoon, hitting on 54.5 percent of its foul shots (12-of-22). 

Also in double figures for Cal was Williams with a team-high 12 points of the bench. Williams has posted double-figure points in five-straight games for the Bears. 

Washington was paced by 14 points from Kellie O’Neill off the bench. Giuiliana Mendiola also had 10 points for the Huskies.

Letter to Editor  

The public’s assessment of transportation - Our regional transportation agency MTC poll (3% accuracy) indicated the most important issues including transportation, surprisingly, was not “Transportation and Congestion."  

It came out several places below “Spending Public Funds Wisely” and “Improving Education”. Present Gasoline Sales Tax goes into the general fund and is spent for Education, Health, Transportation, …etc.  

So, these funds are being spent wisely in keeping with people’s concern rather than only for transportation at the expense of other important issues.  

Proper Allocations?  

Regional Transportation Agencies e.g. MTC realize there is little they can do with highways to relieve congestion so, they are shifting funds to transit and other alternatives in their Plans, some over 65%. However Proposition 42 permanently allocates Gasoline Sales Tax for, roads 80% and transit 20%. To increase 20% for transit and alternatives will require another referendum or 2/3 of State Legislators.  

Gas Tax rather than its Sales Tax should provide transportation funding. In today’s dollars, Gas Tax is taking in less today than 30 years ago.  

Transportation funding should be increased in keeping with consumer price index. Other developed countries charge at least $3 per gallon for gasoline. This $3 includes $2 in Gas Tax, which keeps their highways in good condition as well as providing decent alternatives.  

With the State’s current $12 Billion deficit, let us not siphon off general fund monies into a special transportation fund allocating only 20% for transit permanently at the expense of other important categories. 

Vote No on Proposition 42 

Roy Nakadegawa PE 

BART Director, District 3 

Berkeley, CA, 94707

On this date: 

In 1516, Mary Tudor, the Queen of England popularly known as “Bloody Mary,” was born in Greenwich Palace. 

In 1546, Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died. 

In 1564, artist Michelangelo died in Rome. 

In 1885, Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was published in the United States for the first time. 

In 1930, the ninth planet of our solar system, Pluto, was discovered. 

In 1960, the Eighth Winter Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw Valley, Calif., by Vice President Nixon. 

In 1970, the “Chicago Seven” defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention. 

In 1972, the California Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty. 

In 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden “flight” above the Mojave Desert. 

In 1988, Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as the 104th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Ten years ago: In the New Hampshire primary, President George H.W. Bush won the Republican contest while challenger Patrick Buchanan placed a strong second; among Democrats, Paul Tsongas came in first. 

Five years ago: Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery completed their tuneup of the Hubble Space Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released using the shuttle’s crane. Bill Richardson began work as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 

One year ago: Auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. died from injuries suffered in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49. Death also claimed baseball Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews at age 69, broadcaster Roger Caras at age 72, “Cheaper by the Dozen” co-author Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. at age 89 and painter Balthus at age 92. Veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years. 

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Jack Palance is 81. Former Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown is 80. Actor George Kennedy is 77. Author Toni Morrison is 71. Singer Yoko Ono is 69. Singer Irma Thomas is 61. Actress Sinead Cusack is 54. Producer-director-writer John Hughes is 52. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 52. Singer Juice Newton is 50. Rock musician Robbie Bachman is 49. Actor John Travolta is 48. Game show host Vanna White is 45. Actress Greta Scacchi is 42. Actor Matt Dillon is 38. Rapper Dr. Dre is 37.

Women’s tennis stays undefeated 

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The 12th-ranked California Golden Bears dropped No. 66 Loyola Marymount, 5-2, Saturday afternoon at the LMU tennis courts. The Bears improve to 3-0 on the season, as the Lions fall to 3-5 overall.  

In singles action, California’s top seeded Raquel Kops-Jones defeated LMU’s Andrea Lord in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. Kops-Jones is currently ranked as the No. 26 singles player in the country, according to the latest ITA poll. Penka Fileva returned to the No. 2 spot for the Lions, defeating Cal’s Jieun Jacobs in straight sets, 6-3. 6-4. Edit Pakay played at No. 3 for the Lions, defeating Cal’s 38th-ranked Christina Fusano in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. Angelina Zdorovytska played at No. 4, falling to Catherine Lynch in two, 6-2, 6-0. Lynch is ranked at No. 49 in the current standings. In the No. 5 match, Golden Bear Jody Scheldt defeated Julie Hladik in two as well, 6-2, 7-6. And rounding out the singles for the Lions and Bears was Cal’s Kristen Case, who defeated LMU’s Jessica Placencia, giving up only one game in her straight set victory (6-0. 6-1).  

Cal returns to Berkeley next weekend. The Bears take on San Diego on Friday at 1:30, and then open their Pac-10 season Saturday at noon against arch-rival Stanford. 

Cal gymnasts finish second 

The California Golden Bears finished second, only to No. 10 UCLA, scoring a 192.825 to outdo UC Davis, 190.550 and UC Santa Barbara, 185.500, at the biannual California Invitational Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion. The Bruins tallied a score of 194.825.  

The Bears improved to 5-4 on the season while UCLA is now 9-4. The Aggies dropped to 9-5 and the Gauchos fell to 0-8.  

In the first rotation, junior Janet McKnight led the Bears with a season-high score of 9.825 on the vault. Freshman My-Lan Dodd also tied her season-best mark with a 9.850 performance on the uneven bars. Dodd also brought home a third place finish on the balance beam with a score of 9.800. The floor exercise, the final rotation of the afternoon, saw three Cal gymnasts draw a 9.800 mark - junior Monique Johnson, McKnight and Dodd.  

In the all-around competition, Dodd placed first with a total score of 39.075. Freshman Sheilah Buack also competed in all events, receiving a score of 38.075.  

Cal downs No. 6 UC Davis 

SUISUN, Calif. - Ericka Lorenz and Julie Arnold each scored two goals Saturday as fourth-ranked California beat sixth-ranked UC Davis, 11-3, in a women’s water polo match played at Solano College. Cal improved to 3-2 with the win, while the Aggies lost their third straight game to fall to 4-5 overall. 

Lorenz scored her first goal just over a minute into the game, igniting the Golden Bears who took a 3-0 lead after the first period. Cal led 5-0 early in the second quarter before Agee’s score with 4:51 remaining made it 5-1. A 4-0 surge by the Golden Bears in the third quarter - which included Arnold’s goals with 6:28 and 3:43 left - made it 9-1. Lorenz added her second scored during the third quarter as well.  

Sexton scored her goal less than 30 seconds into the final period, while Delaney converted her score on a penalty shot with 1:56 left. Cal had eight major fouls in the game, but UC Davis only scored once as a result.  

Nine different players scored for Cal in the win.  

Bear goalie Lauren Dennis had six for the Golden Bears, while Alexis Muecke put up seven stops for UC Davis.  

The Bears return to action next week, taking part in the UC Santa Barbara tournament.  

Cal rugby beats New Mexico 

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - The Cal varsity rugby squad (5-0) traveled to the desert equipped with its high altitude and came out with a hard fought win over the Lobos, 43-3 Saturday afternoon. This was the Bears’ twentieth straight win dating back to last year’s national championship run.  

“It was a solid victory against a worthy opponent playing at home,” said head coach Jack Clark. “Maybe it was the altitude or maybe it was our fitness level, but I thought we were dragging ... especially our big guys.”  

The Bears took a narrow 15-3 lead into halftime, only to put up 28 more points in the second half while holding the Lobos to none. The first half execution was shabby at best, but the physicality and the technical skills of the Bears’ seasoned veterans proved to be too much for New Mexico in the second half.  

The second half saw Cal dominating the line-outs and scrums while controlling the run of play. Even though the high altitude seemed to tire out the players, the Bears dominated the territory for nearly two-thirds of the game, rarely letting New Mexico advance to their side of the field.  

“I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the victory, but we have a long way to go to become the team we’re capable of becoming,” said Clark.  

Senior Dave Guest led the Bears scoring attack, scoring four tries, one penalty kick and five two-point conversions for a total of 33 points on the day. Cal held the Lobos to just one first half penalty kick while scoring six tries and one penalty kick of their own.

OAKLAND — J. Desmond Clark, an anthropologist and African fossil hunter, has died. He was 85. 

Clark, who had been in good health and had just returned from a trip to England with his wife, died Thursday of pneumonia at an Oakland convalescent home, University of California, Berkeley officials said. 

“Clark was legendary,” said Tim D. White, one of his colleagues at UC Berkeley. “He towered above anybody else in African archaeology with his breadth and depth of knowledge about the rise and development of prehistoric culture. His death leaves an enormous void.” 

Clark, a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, made several expeditions to India, China and Africa throughout his career. 

There he and his colleagues made discoveries of creatures known as hominids, which preceded the emergence of modern Homo sapiens by millions of years. While White and his Ethiopian colleagues found the hominid fossils, it was Clark who unearthed their stone implements, opening fresh insights into the development of early pre-human cultures. 

Clark was born in London and educated as an archaeologist at Cambridge University. He became curator of the David Livingstone Memorial Museum in 1938 in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. He intended it to be temporary but stayed for 24 years. 

He went to Berkeley in 1961, served as chairman of the anthropology department for many years, and for 20 years he and White led expeditions to the prehistoric sites of the Middle Awash Valley that have produced major hominid finds as old as 6 million years. 

Clark is survived by his wife of 64 years, Betty Baume Clark; a daughter, Elizabeth Winterbottom of New South Wales, Australia; a son, John Clark of Kent, England; a sister, Moira Coulson of England; and five grandchildren. 

BERKELEY — The City wants to conserve more energy, and they have decided to offer a $75 carrot to do it. 

Living in the wake of last summer’s energy crisis and this winter’s allegations of wide-scale price-gouging and corruption by Enron are not the only reasons for the energy conservation contest, according to Alice La Pierre of the Berkeley Energy Office.  

By promoting the winner, the Berkeley Energy Commission hopes to provide an opportunity for residents to learn about energy conservation methods from their neighbors. 

“We want to get the word out,” La Pierre said. 

And to get the word out about various conservation efforts, the city is sponsoring “Berkeley Unplugged,” which will highlight a wide-range of conservation solutions, from the traditional to the creative, a spokeswoman for the city says. 

Ten winners will be chosen in categories including lowest overall energy usage during January of 2002, the greatest overall reduction from the previous year and the most creative and successful measure used to conserve energy. 

Winners will receive a $75 gift certificate to be used at the  

Berkeley Conservation and Energy program, which provides energy-conserving products such as compact fluorescent lamps, water heater blankets, energy-efficient torchieres and programmable thermostats.  

The deadline for entries is March 20, 2002. More information is available at online at www.ecologycenter.org/Berkeley Unplugged. 

CONTACT: Alice La Pierre, Berkeley Energy Office (510) 981-5435 or Stephanie Lopez, Berkeley communications office (510) 981-2481 

OAKLAND — Oakland International Airport has announced that its volume of daily flights is expected to increase over the next six months. 

Airport spokeswoman Cyndy Johnson said Friday that American Airlines has announced the inauguration of twice-daily nonstop service between Oakland Airport and New York's John F. Kennedy Airport beginning March 2. Also, as of Feb. 5, American reinstated nonstop service between Oakland and Los Angeles with six daily flights. 

JetBlue Airways continues to expand its Bay Area presence with the addition of a third daily nonstop flight to Kennedy Airport on March 10 and another daily nonstop later this spring, Johnson said. The fledgling airline also plans new twice-daily, transcontinental service between Oakland and Washington Dulles International Airport this spring. 

Southwest Airlines will expand its Oakland operation with three new daily nonstop flights from Chicago Midway Airport beginning April 7.  

In addition, SunTrips will relocate its Hawaii program from San Francisco International Airport to Oakland on Feb. 28, consolidating its Bay Area operation in Oakland. 

Oakland International Airport served 11.4 million passengers and handled more than 600,000 metric tons of air cargo last year. 

Though San Francisco International Airport officials have affirmed they still plan to push for runway expansions many believe that the recession will put them hold and politics may delay them long enough for further obstacles to arise. 

Critics of SFO's runway reconfigurations say it could shut down windsurfing all along the Peninsula shoreline, both through blockage and through sedimentation that could impact sites well to the south of the airport. 

New runways have been proposed for both San Francisco and Oakland airports. A new runway at either would result in the largest Bay fill since the establishment of the modern environmental and coastal resource management framework.  

Mayor Shirley Dean is proposing an amendment to the city’s municipal code that will ban smoking within 15 to 25 feet of the entrances of all buildings open to the public. 

The tobacco coalition originated the idea in conjunction with others concerned about tobacco usage in the city, said Mayor Shirley Dean. 

“Whether it becomes law or not is another question,” Dean said. “But I agree with it. What has happened as people have gotten more and more use to not smoking in their offices they are going to sit outside. And the smoke is wafting into the doorway.” 

The item will be considered by the City Council during its regular meeting on Tuesday. 

The amendment would cover both publicly owned and privately owned buildings that are open to the public including stores, bars and restaurants. 

“Over the years, the city of Berkeley has been in the forefront of anti-smoking legislation and has taken aggressive positions on the sale and advertising on the sale and advertising of tobacco,” the recommendation reads. 

The recommendation claims numerous studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution and that breathing secondhand smoke is the cause of disease, including lung cancer, in nonsmokers. 

PASADENA — A NASA spacecraft will start peeling back the dry and dusty rust-red surface of Mars this month to reveal what scientists expect are vast, hidden stores of water. 

Scientists already know there is water on Mars, in ice that caps the north pole, frost seen at high latitudes and wispy clouds crowding the planet’s highest peaks. 

Far more extensive amounts of water, even massive glaciers, could emerge from behind the dusty veil that cloaks the Red Planet, once the 2001 Mars Odyssey begins its 917-day science mission on or around Feb. 20. 

“You have a vast region that is perhaps just loaded with water,” said William Feldman of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a scientist on the $300 million National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission. 

The possibility charges scientists because it would support theories that the planet was once — and may still be — a wet world hospitable to life. On Earth, life is found wherever there is water, nutrients and a source of energy; the same rule may hold true elsewhere in the solar system. 

Today, Mars abounds with evidence that torrents of water once flowed across its surface, carving channels, flooding plains and weeping from steep crater walls. 

Whether that water remains locked within the planet or was lost to space remains a mystery. Scientists believe Odyssey, and its ability to sniff out the hydrogen bound to oxygen that forms water, can provide an answer. 

“That would make it very exciting, that there are still gobs and gobs of water there,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, another Odyssey scientist. 

Rather than dig into Mars, Odyssey will scout from afar, as the satellite orbits the planet at an average distance of about 250 miles. 

Using its thermal emission imaging system and a combination gamma ray spectrometer and neutron detector, the robotic probe will peer down on — and into — Mars. A third instrument, designed to monitor the radiation environment, has malfunctioned. 

As it orbits Mars every two hours, the spacecraft will use its instruments to map the distribution of chemicals and minerals in the top three feet or so of the surface of the planet. Among the 20 elements it can detect is hydrogen, which indicates the likely presence of water. 

“As long as it’s within a meter of the surface we are going to see it,” Boynton said. 

The frozen water is most likely mixed with dirt to form a permafrost similar to that found in the Alaskan tundra. On Mars, the deposits are probably scattered near the poles, in cold regions that receive less sunlight than those closer to the equator. Odyssey should determine how close to the equator those deposits extend. 

“We suspect, and I think we’ll find out very soon an answer, that there are lots of places where there is water ice frozen in the soil,” said Jeff Plaut, the mission’s deputy project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Tracking down where the water has gone remains a key goal of NASA’s Mars program.

OAKLAND — A car wreck at one of the Bay Area’s notorious illegal car rallies has left a woman dead, a man in jail and top city officials calling for new laws to curb the troublesome activity. 

U’Kendra Johnson, 22, of Oakland, was killed when the car she was riding in was broadsided by a Buick that moments before had been spinning “doughnuts” as part of the so-called sideshow, police said. 

Police arrested the driver, 27-year-old Eric Crawford of Oakland, after he fled the scene on foot. Crawford was arrested on suspicion of murder, felony hit-and-run and drunken driving. 

“There is just more and more lives being taken and everyone is like, ’who gives a damn,”’ said Winnie Johnson, the victim’s mother. 

The city has struggled since the late 1980s to curb the late-night gatherings, which draw crowds of people from around the Bay Area to watch drivers whirl around with teens on the roofs of their cars. 

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said he wants the state to enact emergency laws giving police the power to impound any car involved in sideshows for 30 days. 

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — Sen. Harry Reid called President Bush a “liar” for telling Nevadans that he would base a decision on whether to send the nation’s nuclear waste to Nevada on “sound science, not politics.” 

At a Saturday news conference, Reid criticized Bush’s approval Friday of Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the site for long-term disposal of thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste. 

“So this is the big lie,” Reid, D-Nev., said. “The president didn’t tell the truth ... If this is an example of how he helps Nevada, we don’t need his help.” 

Reid’s comments drew criticism from the White House. 

“The president has said all along that he would base his decision on sound science, which is what he did,” Bush spokesman Jimmy Orr said. “The fact that the senator disagrees with him on the science is a shameful excuse to personally attack the president.” 

Reid’s news conference was held at Heavenly Ski Resort’s observation deck, where Bush stood in 2000 when he told Nevadans that he would base his Yucca Mountain decision on “sound science.” 

Reid said the Energy Department did not properly consider environmental impacts or the security risk posed by transporting 77,000 tons of waste stockpiled at U.S. nuclear plants and defense facilities. 

On Friday, Bush said his decision was “the culmination of two decades of intense scientific scrutiny” and that he is certain the science is sound. 

Reid, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said Bush “would not be president today” if Nevadans had known what was in store for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

Bush won Nevada’s four electoral votes en route to his slim victory over Al Gore. 

“(Bush has) left the country, and he thinks this (issue) will be gone when he gets back, but it won’t be,” Reid said. 

Reid said he’s also concerned that, given Bush’s close ties to the energy industry, Friday’s decision may lead to future nuclear energy development. 

SAN RAFAEL — Someone scrawled graffiti on the house and car of the Marin County family accused in the death of an infant and the neglect of 12 other children. 

“Shame. It takes an entire village,” a vandal wrote on the garage door of the family’s home. 

The vandal also used red spray paint to write “murderers” on the side of a black Suburban parked in front of the house where five adults allegedly kept 13 half-starved children until one of the children died. 

“It is horrible when people take this kind of hateful stance,” said Irene Sullivan, who lives next door. 

The five people charged in the case are Winnfred Everett Wright, 45, Carol Louise Bremner, 44, Mary Campbell, 37, Deirdre Hart Wilson, 37, and Kali Polk-Matthews, 20. 

The suspects are accused of involuntary manslaughter for the November death of Wright and Campbell’s 19-month-old son and the alleged neglect of a dozen other children, all fathered by Wright. 

SAN FRANCISCO — As interest in the record $191 million state lottery jackpot ebbed higher, so did reports of illegal online ticket sales. 

State lottery officials are re-emphasizing that tickets must be purchased within the state and in person rather than through third-party sellers. 

“Sales of lottery tickets on the Internet are not authorized nor are they legal,” said lottery Director Joan Wilson. “We want our customers to understand that legal tickets are available at our authorized locations only and that any Internet or out-of- state sites are simply not legal.” 

Lottery spokeswoman Norma Minas said at least one woman called saying she purchased a ticket from a Florida-based Web site, using a credit card. 

“We know it’s going on, we saw the Web site,” Minas said. “We assume there will be more.” 

A quick search online turned up several scalper sites offering California Lottery tickets to out-of-state residents with an added service charge. 

Nearly 19,000 retailers in the state are authorized to sell lottery tickets. Out-of-state residents may enter the state and buy lottery tickets at those sites. They cannot purchase the tickets by telephone or Internet. 

The $191 million sum is the largest single-state U.S. jackpot, and the fifth-largest including multistate games, the California Lottery said. The biggest lottery payout in U.S. history was $363 million in May, 2000 for the multistate Powerball game. 

The previous record jackpot in California was $141 million won on June 23, 2001. 

• Winning numbers39, 31, 32, 11 and 6. The Mega Number is 20. 

• The estimated jackpot is $193 million. 

The morning after at least three lottery players landed shares of the biggest single-state jackpot in history, the only winners who were talking were the store owners who sold the tickets. 

The three winning SuperLotto Plus tickets, which are each worth $64.3 million before taxes, were sold at an Albertsons in Half Moon Bay and 7-Eleven stores in Orange and Montebello, California lottery officials said Sunday. 

No one had stepped forward to claim the prize Sunday morning, and the Presidents Day holiday means the winners will have to wait until Tuesday to present their tickets to lottery officials. 

The buying frenzy for a shot at the $193 million jackpot peaked Saturday night, when hopefuls snapped up a record $6 million worth of tickets an hour. 

“There’s a lot more excitement around a mega jackpot like this. You pretty much have interest from around the world,” said Norma Minas, a lottery spokeswoman. She was fielding media calls from as far away as Germany and Japan Sunday morning. 

Owners of the three lucky stores will receive $321,666 each for selling the winning tickets. The stores were buzzing with excitement and well-wishers Sunday morning, but the winners stayed away. 

HOUSTON — The University of California Regents will lead the charge for big-time investors and individual shareholders collectively suing current and former Enron Corp. officials for more than $1 billion gained in stock sales before the company imploded last year. 

U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon designated the university late Friday as the head decision-maker in a massive securities-fraud lawsuit against current and former executives and directors of the company. 

“We take up this responsibility with the deepest sense of obligation not only to the UC family of employees, retirees and students, but to the millions of Americans who invested in good faith with Enron,” said James E. Holst, general counsel for the university. 

Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, the law firm representing the university and Amalgamated Bank, stands to collect the most in attorneys’ fees for taking on the lion’s share of work in the case as well. 

The firm could generate fees reaching hundreds of millions of dollars if an Enron judgment comes close to last year’s record $3.2 billion settlement that Cendant and its accounting firm made with stockholders. That case stemmed from a 1998 scandal involving the then-Connecticut company that became the largest financial fraud case ever brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

“Millions of Americans invested in Enron because of the confidence they placed in the business practices of the company and the public information provided by its senior executives and accountants,” said Milberg Weiss partner William Lerach of San Diego, who has spoken for the regents and Amalgamated in hearings before Harmon. 

“On behalf of the University of California as lead plaintiff and working in concert with all the plaintiffs, we look forward to vigorously pursuing the shareholders’ case,” he said. 

The fees provide a big incentive for law firms competing to be lead counsel representing lead plaintiffs in large class-action lawsuits, said Henry T.C. Hu, a corporate law professor at the University of Texas School of Law. The lead plaintiff doesn’t get a bigger slice of the judgment pie. But the university will have more power to plan strategy and direct the case, Hu said. 

“From a monetary standpoint there’s nothing in it for the lead plaintiff,” Hu said. “You don’t get any more money than your prorated share. But that law firm will be putting in a lot of time, and it could be very attractive financially.” 

The original class-action fraud case was filed in Houston on behalf of Amalgamated and several investment funds days after Enron filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 2. 

Amalgamated lost $10 million in the meltdown, and sought $25 billion in damages. The suit is seeking $1.1 billion gained by current and former Enron executives and directors who sold stock from October 1998 through November last year. 

Other plaintiffs that lost more money have since joined the suit, including: 

• The Florida State Board of Administration and the New York City Pension Fund. Combined loss: $443 million. 

• The University of California Regents. Loss: $145 million. 

• Pension funds for the states of Georgia, Washington, Ohio and Alabama. Combined loss: $416 million. 

Lawyers representing shareholders and former employees also joined the suit. Employees watched their Enron-stock loaded 401(k) accounts evaporate as the company collapsed. 

Milberg Weiss had argued that as a single plaintiff, the regents would be able to better manage the case than multiple pension funds. Amalgamated did not seek the lead plaintiff designation. 

Despite objections from neighbors, The Zoning Adjustments Board approved the Environmental Impact Report Thursday for the Hills Fire Station proposed for a quiet ridge in the Berkeley hills.  

The ZAB approved the report by a vote of 7-2 with board members David Blake and Andy Katz voting in opposition. The report, required by state law, evaluates potential impacts from the construction of the two-story, 6,800-square-foot station.  

Opponents of the station contend the quiet, residential neighborhood is not appropriate for a fire station. Others argued the station is necessary to protect the Berkeley hills from wild fires originating in the open lands east of the city. 

The proposed location is at 3000 Shasta Rd near Park Hills Road, which is adjacent to Tilden Park on the eastern edge of the city.  

Prior to voting, the ZAB heard public comments about the quality of the EIR. Also Fire Chief Reginald Garcia, Assistant Chief David Orth and Project Manager Carmella Rejwan responded to questions about information in the report. 

Proponents of the project called for the ZAB to approve the project and move quickly to approve the Use Permit for the project. Voters approved bond funds for the project in 1992, partly in response to the Berkeley/Oakland Hills Fire in 1991.  

The bond, Measure G, provided $55 million for a variety of fire safety projects including seismically upgrading the cities seven fire stations, repairing aging water mains and building a new fire station in a strategic location to battle fires in the Berkeley and Oakland hills. 

“I’m concerned with the delay to build the Hills Fire Station,” said proponent Colin Murphy. “This station will serve as a first line of defense in case of another fire in the wild lands.” 

According to fire department officials, one of the reasons 3000 Shasta Rd. was chosen from among eight other locations is because department response time trials shoed the location is within four minutes of the furthest point of the fire district, which is to the north at Grizzly Peak Road at Spruce Street.  

Chief Garcia said four minutes is widely accepted as the maximum amount of time to respond to a structural fire. 

Opponents, who have organized into a group called Citizens for Responsible Fire Protection, argued the EIR should not be approved because the response time trials were flawed. Peter Cukor, who lives immediately across the street from the proposed site, said he had himself conducted a variety of time trials. 

“There are many areas in Fire District 7 that are not reachable in four minutes,” Cukor said. “The neighbors ask the ZAB to not approve the EIR because the response times do not meet EIR standards.” 

Chief Garcia was skeptical of Cukor’s results. 

“Anyone can come up with the analysis they want to,” he said. “I timed these routes myself traveling between 25 and 30 miles an hour, which is the speed fire apparatus travels.” 

ZAB member David Blake, who said he and fellow board member Andy Katz had also timed response distances prior to the meeting, said he found problems with the response-time trials as well. He said he voted against the EIR because of discrepancies in at least one of the fire department’s reported times. 

“Some of the times don’t add up,” he said. “It’s these types of flaws and inaccuracies that make EIR’s more vulnerable to law suits.” 

The ZAB will hold another public hearing on Feb. 28.

For seven innings, Trevor Hutchinson dodged bullets. But in the eighth, he was done in by foam pellets. 

The Long Beach State 49ers didn’t hit a ball hard in the eighth inning on Friday at Evans Diamond, but they still managed to score four runs to break a 1-1 deadlock. They added another three runs in the ninth, again without hitting the ball very hard, to win 8-1 over Cal. 

The Bears (4-5) dropped the game to the 21st-ranked 49ers despite outhitting them, 9-8, and allowing just one extra-base hit. But Long Beach (3-1) crammed most of their hits into the final two innings, while Cal spread theirs out and left seven runners on base. 

“We need to come of age soon, and find some guys to get the big hits for us,” Cal head coach David Esquer said of his young squad. “We haven’t played very well yet, and we need to put together a string of games.” 

Hutchinson held Long Beach without a hit for the first five innings, but it was a matter of luck more than command. Jeremy Reed started the game for the 49ers with a long drive to the fence in left field, and there were several line drives that headed right for Cal gloves in the next few innings. 

“(Hutchinson) wasn’t dominating them. We just had guys in the right spots,” Esquer said. 

Cal grabbed a 1-0 lead when leadoff hitter David Nicholson cranked a two-out, two-strike home run over the left-field wall in the third inning. It was the center fielder’s first round-tripper of the season, but it was all the support Hutchinson would get on the day. 

The Bears had opportunities to extend their lead in the fourth and fifth innings, putting runners in scoring position with one out in each inning, but couldn’t get anyone home against Long Beach starter Abe Alvarez. 

“If we get even one more run there, it puts much more pressure on (Long Beach),” Esquer said. “They would have had to think about getting a couple of runs, rather than trying to manufacture one to tie the game up.” 

Reed finally got Long Beach’s first hit of the game in the sixth inning, lining the first pitch into left-center for a double. Nick Orlandos put down a sacrifice bunt on the next pitch, but Hutchinson got to the ball late and threw it away, allowing Reed to score and sending Orlandos to second base.  

Chris Wright followed with a single to left, but Orlandos was held at third and wouldn’t score as Hutchinson struck out Paul McAnulty and Nick Covarrubias, then got Mike Hofius to line out to first base to end the threat. 

Having tied the score, the 49ers called in reliever Josh Alliston, who set down Cal with little fuss for the next four innings to earn the victory. 

Reed got things started again in the eighth inning, hitting a leadoff single off of Hutchinson. Orlandos sacrificed him to second base, with Hutchinson this time handling the ball with no trouble. Esquer chose to intentionally walk Wright to set up a possible double play, but Hutchinson faltered, walking McAnulty to load the bases before Covarrubias plopped a single into right field to plate Reed for a 2-1 lead. Hofius then hit a soft ground ball to shortstop and Jeff Dragicevich could only get the out at first, allowing Wright to score. Todd Jennings then got the backbreaker, a soft looper that fell inside the foul line in right field, scoring two runs to give the 49ers a 5-1 lead. Hutchinson finally got out of the inning by inducing a grounder to Dragicevich off the bat of Adam Heether. 

Esquer had no compunction about sending Hutchinson to the mound in the eighth, although his ace had already thrown more than 90 pitches. The senior right-handed had won his first two starts, giving up just one earned run in 15 innings in the two games. 

“I absolutely wanted him out there,” Esquer said. “He’s our Friday starter, and he’s the guy who gets our big wins for us.” 

Freshman left-hander Travis Talbott started the ninth for the Bears, but got just one out before he was yanked after giving up two runs.

Editor: 

The City Council will be holding a Public Hearing on the downzoning of a portion of the 1100 block of Hearst Avenue (between San Pablo and Curtis) on Feb. 19. This is the last chance to oppose this short- sighted and illegal attempt to stop our development of a 14- unit residential apartment complex in this block. Which is more important? The creation of critically needed new housing on privately owned land which is appropriately zoned or the emotional appeals of well-organized neighbors. The neighborhood activists say that this block is an “anomaly” because there is lower density housing behind Hearst on Delaware Street and therefore our block should be downzoned to match. This is a dangerous assumption because many properties in Berkeley are zoned higher than their neighbors usually because of proximity to major transit corridors.  

If this reclassification is approved it opens the door for neighborhood groups to use reclassification as a weapon against future development. It will create a disincentive for anyone to invest in rental housing in Berkeley since the zoning at purchase may be reclassified therefore reducing the value of the property. Downzoning will reduce the potential for more affordable housing since the new zoning will make it economically unfeasible to build “inclusionary units” (low- income units). Only small projects with less than five units will be built since then they won’t have to comply with the affordable housing requirement. How can the city of Berkeley say that the creation of housing is a high priority while reducing the potential for new housing by downzoning? No wonder we have between 1,000 and 2,000 homeless people in Berkeley and no way to house many of the families on the Section 8 housing list. 

Please e-mail for more information. 

Lynda Hart 

Berkeley

If you’re more interested in reading about eunuchs than UNIX,and you’ve been wondering about the private lives of men in turbans and women in burkas in 16th and 17th century Mughal India, then you might want to pick up a copy of “The Twentieth Wife” by first-time author, Indu Sandaresan. 

This gorgeously jacketed book, which is being given enormous publicity while the author is on a 13-city tour, is a romance novel based on the true story of the birth, childhood, young womanhood, disastrous first marriage, and then triumphant second marriage of Mehrunnisa, the “sapphire-eyed” Sun of Woman, to Emperor Jahangir.  

At her marriage – which takes place when Mehrunnisa is at the advanced age of 34 – she becomes known as Empress Nur Jahan. She is Emperor Jahangir’s 20th, and final, wife. Although women were not usually said to have much power during this period, after the Emperor Jahangir’s death, the Empress has the personal and political skills to rule the empire for 15 years. 

Indian children know this history well. The Empress Nur Jahan is best known, in Indian history books, for her connection to the Tah Mahal. A year after Empress Hur Jahan joins the imperial harem, Emperor Khurram marries Mehrunnisa’s niece, Arjumand Banu Begam. This niece later dies while giving birth to her 14th child, and, in her memory, the emperor – supposedly with help from Empress Nur Jahan, the former Mehrunnisa and the heroine of this book – builds the Taj Mahal.  

“The Twentieth Wife” covers the first thirty-four years of Mehrunnisa’s life. A sequel, titled “The Power of the Veil,” will continue where “The Twentieth Wife” leaves off. 

The non-working class women of Mughal India – which in 1601 stretched from Bengal, India to Kandahar, Afghanistan – wore burkas and looked out at the world through a veil. They spent most of their time behind the walls of the harem enclosure, listening to the sounds of camels, horses, and sheep; their bare feet walking on stone. 

Most women of this period had little power over the shape and texture of their lives. It is interesting to note, though, that women of the working class, such as potters and builders, were more commonly considered the equal of their husbands, and were not required to wear a veil. Mehrunnisa, a member of the semi-nobility, was fortunate to be trained in music, dance, poetry, and painting. Though she’s born to a father subject to the throne of Persia and fleeing debtor’s prison and, possibly, death, due to some temporary bad luck, the family is soon living a life of privilege and comfort. 

Many of the descriptions in “The Twentieth Wife” are quite pleasing to read. When Mehrunnisa is born she is described as having “Well-formed arms and legs, a thick head of shiny black hair, and long, curling black eyelashes curling over delicate cheeks.” We hear about the tent sides that flap in the wind, and “steaming dishes of saffron-tinted pulavas cooked in chicken broth, goat curry in a rich brown gravy, a leg of lamb roasted with garlic and rosemary, and a salad of cucumber and plump tomato, sprinkled with rock salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon.” 

Occasionally, though, descriptions of people, places, and things are described with romance novel clichés: Mehrunissa has “mischief in her eyes.” On the other hand, The Twentieth Wife provides an important and fascinating perspective to the drama taking place in Afghanistan and India today. 

Sari Friedman can be reached via Sari2@Earthlink.Net. 

924 Gilman Feb. 16: Iron Vegan, Nigel Peppercock, Lost Goat, Iron Lung, Depressor; Feb. 22: Oppressed Logic, Deface, Edddie Haskells, Throat Oyster; Feb. 23: From Ashes Arise, Artimus Pyle, Brainoil, Down in Flames, Dystrophy, Scholastic Deth; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926. 

The Albatross Feb. 18: Paul Schneider; Feb. 19: Carla Kaufman and Larry Scala; Feb. 20: Whiskey Brothers; Feb. 21: Keni “El Lebrijano”; Feb. 23: 9:30 p.m., Dave Creamer Jazz Quartet; Feb. 26: Mad & Eddie Duran; Feb. 28: Keni “El Lebrijano”; All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless noted. 822 San Pablo Ave., 843-2473, albatrosspub@mindspring. com. 

Anna’s Bistro Feb. 16: Robin Gregory, Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Feb. 17: Acoustic Soul; Feb. 18: Renegade Sidemen w/Calvin Keyes; Feb. 19: Ed Reed; Feb. 20: Bob Schoen Jazz Quintet; Feb. 21: Jazz Singers’ Collective; Feb. 22: Fourtet, Hideo Date; Feb. 23: Vicki Burns & Felice York, Ducksan Distones Jazz Sextet; Feb. 24: Christy Dana Jazz Quartet; Feb. 25: Renegade Sidemen w/Calvin Keyes; Feb. 26: Con Alma; Feb. 27: Mainstream Jazz Quintet; Feb. 28: Junebug; Music starts at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., 1801 University Ave., 849-2662. 

Blake’s Feb. 17: Roots Science; Feb. 18: The Steve Gannon Band, Mz. Dee, $4; Feb. 20: Hebro, $3; Feb. 21: Ascension, $5; Feb. 23: Tang; Feb. 24: Famous Last Words; $3; Feb. 25: The Steve Gannon Band, Mz. Dee, $4; Feb. 26: Boomshanka, Rare Form, $3; Feb. 27: Mindz Eye, $5; Feb. 28: Ascension, $5; 2367 Telegraph Ave., 877-488-6533. 

Cafe Eclectica Feb. 23: 8 p.m., Hip Hop show: Little Larry, with guest MCs and DJs. A teen cafe "for youth, by youth". All ages, $3 w/HS I.D., $5 w/o; 1309 Solano Ave., Albany, 527-2344. 

Cal Performances Feb. 17: 3 p.m., Opera vocalist, Ewa Podles, performs works by Rossini, Chopin and Brahms. $42. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, 642-9988 

Cato’s Ale House Feb. 17: Phillip Greenlief Trio; Feb. 20: Anton Schwartz Trio; Feb. 24: Blue and Tan; Feb. 27: Vince Wallace Trio 

Club Jjang-ga Feb. 16: Deducted Value, Dopesick, Luxt, Karate High School, Forcing Bloom; Feb. 23: Cheapskate, Eddie Haskels, Resiteleros, Dead Last; 261-1108, savageproductions1@yahoo.com. 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Jupiter Feb. 16: Michael Bluestien Trio; Feb. 20: Joshi Marshall Duo; Feb. 21: Spectraphonic; Feb. 22: Ben Graves Group; Feb. 23: Brenden Millstein Quartet; Feb. 27: J Steinkoler Duo; Feb. 28: Spectraphonic; All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m., unless noted. 2181 Shattuck Ave., 843-7625, www.jupiterbeer.com. 

Old First Concerts Feb. 16: 8 p.m., The Duke and The Lady-Faye Carol, $12; Feb. 17: 4 p.m., Miriam Abramowitsch and George Barth, $12; Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento St., 415-474-1608. 

The Starry Plough Feb. 16: 9:30 p.m. Camper Van Chadbourne, Dandeline, $7; Feb. 17: 8 p.m., Irish Music Session; Feb. 20: 8:30 p.m., Poetry Slam, $5; Feb. 21: 9:30 p.m., Jon Langford, Rico Bell, $12; Feb. 22: 9:30 p.m., 20 Minute Loop, Kirby Grips, She Mob, $6; Feb. 23: 9:30 p.m., Eric McFadden Experience, Mark Growden, $6; 3101 Shattuck Ave., 841-2082. 

Tuva Space Mar. 21: 8 p.m., Blues Translation; Mar. 22: 8 p.m., Electro-Acoustic Quartet; Mar. 23: 8 p.m. Solo Guitar Performance, 9:30 p.m. Country, Folk, and Blues Standards. $8 All shows $8. 312 Adeline St. 649-8744, acme@sfsound.org 

“Concherto Night” Feb. 16: 8 p.m., Empyrean Ensemble perform new American and 20th Century works. $14 -$18. Julia Morgan Theatre, 2640 College Ave., 925-798-1300, www.juliamorgan.org 

“Love is in the Air” Feb. 16: 6 p.m., Oakland Lyric Opera presents an evening of dinner, candlelight and flowers accompanied by a musical showcase of Broadway tunes, Italian street songs and nostalgic cabaret music. $65 including tax and tip. Sequoya Country Club, 4550 Heafey Rd, Oakland, 836-6772 

“Judi Bari Takes on the FBI” Feb. 16: 7:30 p.m., Alice Littletree and Sherry Glaser perform separately in a benefit to raise money for Judi Bari’s suit against the FBI. $5 - $15 sliding scale. Unitarian Fellowship, Cedar & Bonita St., 415-927-1645 

“Bosch Sisters” Feb. 20: 7:30 p.m., Swiss sisters perform piano concert featuring music by Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Debussy and Poulenc. Donations suggested. UC Berkeley International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. 642-9490 

“Free Men! Free Women!” Feb. 22 through Feb. 23: 8 p.m., Wing It performs a new a combination of dance, song and story. $12. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, 814-9584 

“John Glennon and Erika March” Feb. 24: 5 p.m., A program of French music including the works of Francois Couperin, Chambonnieres, and Muffat. $15 - $18. MusicSources, 1000 The Alameda, 528-1685 

“Cosi Fan Tutte” Feb. 22 through Mar. 3: The Berkeley Opera will perform Mozart’s classic opera. $10 - $30. Call for specific dates and times. Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. 841-103, www.berkeleyopera.com 

“La Tania” Feb. 14 through Feb. 16, 6 p.m., 7:15 p.m., Acclaimed Flamenco Dancer, La Tania, performs with members of her dance company. $55 dinner included. Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662, www.cafedelapaz.net 

“The Ravel Project and Other Performances” Feb. 15, Feb. 16: 8 p.m., Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre will premiere the Ravel Project on February 15th and perform separate selections on February 16. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-0212 

“Here..Now” Feb. 19 through Feb. 24: Tues. - Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 2 p.m., 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m., 8 p.m., Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs three distinct programs featuring the West Coast premiere of “Here...Now”. $24 - $46. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, 642-0212 

“Human Nature” Feb. 16: 8:30 p.m., X-plicit Players, $15; Art-A-Fact, 1109 Addison St., 848-1985, www.xplicitplayers.com. 

“Sisters” Through Feb. 16: Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., The Prozorov sisters look at the gap between hope and fulfillment in their lives. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattack, www.actorsensemleofbkerkeley.com. 

“Night, Mother” Feb. 8, Feb. 15 - 16, Feb. 22 - 23: 8 p.m., A drama exploring one young woman’s decision to take control of her life with one furious and heartbreaking act. Directed by Bahati Bonner. $12, $8 seniors. La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Ave. 496-1269 x1950, nightmother@onebox.com 

“Culture Clash in AmeriCCA” Through Mar. 3: Check theater for specific dates and times. The comic trio Culture Clash present their latest collection of political, ethnological and socialogical humor written for and about Berkeley. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St., 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Rhinoceros” Through Mar. 10: Check theater for specific dates and times. An absurdist tragic-comedy about a small provincial town whose citizens slowly but surely transform into large cumbersome rhinoceroses. Directed by Barbara Damashek. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St. 647-2976 www.berkeleyrep.org. 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland, 239-2252, www.acteva.com/go/havefun. 

Film 

Pacific Film Archive Feb: 14: 7 p.m., The Perfumed Garden; Feb: 15: 7 p.m., Rendezvous in Paris, 9:05 p.m., Autumn Tale; Feb. 17: 3 p.m. The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, 5:30 p.m., The Atonement of Gosta Berling; Feb. 19: 7:30 p.m., Prisoners of War; Feb. 20: 3 p.m., The General, 7:30 p.m., Kristin Lucas Simulcast Town Meeting; Feb. 21: 7:30 p.m., Kristin Lucas Workshop; 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412. 

“Human Rights International Film Festival” Feb. 22 through Feb. 24: Nine provocative films will be shown, many followed by question and answer sessions with local and visiting filmmakers. Check theater for films and times. Pacific Film Archive, 2527 Bancroft Way, 642-1412  

Exhibits  

“Rhythms” Through Feb. 2: Art installation of sculpture, neon, music and video projections by Kati Casida; Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St., 845-5373 

Pro Arts: “Juried Annual 2001-02” Through Feb. 2: Exhibition of painting, sculpture, mixed media, photography and more by Bay Area and regional artists; Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., www.proartsgallery.org. 

“All Grown Up” Through Feb. 2: New paintings and drawings by Amy Chan. Thurs. 1 p.m. - 8 p.m., Fri -Sun 1 p.m. -6 p.m., 21 Grand Ave., Oakland, 444-7263. 

“Water Media” Through Feb. 8: An exhibit by Christine “Caipirinha” Mulder. Capoeira Arts Cafe Gallery, 2026 Center St., 666-1349 for hours. 

“New Work by Dennis Begg and Steve Briscoe” Through Feb. 9: Dennis Begg’s sculpture. Steve Brisco’s paintings. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Traywick Gallery,1316 10th St., 527-1214. 

“Enduring Wisdom: Artwork and Stories by Homeless and Formerly Homeless Seniors” Through Feb. 15: 18 homeless and formerly homeless elders reveal how they learned and applied wisdom that is timeless. Mon. - Fri. and Sundays 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.; Free. St. Mary’s Center, 635 22nd St., Oakland, 893-4723 x222. 

“Envisioning Ecology” Through Feb. 15: Paintings by Michelle Waters. Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., 548-2220 x233. 

“The Other 364 Days: A Day in the Life of the Queer Community” Through Feb. 16: An exhibit of black and white photographs by East Bay photographer Limor Inbar-Hansen. Mon. - Fri., 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Sat., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St., 644-1400, limor@indelible-images.com. 

“Adventures in La Land” Through Feb. 23: Installations by Suzanne Husky and Paintings by Amy Morrell. Tues. - Sat., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; 4920 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, 428-2349. 

“Transformations: Through the Eye of a Needle” Through Feb. 23: Two-person exhibition by Rebecca Bui and Linda Lemon including procelain and fabric dolls and mixed media works on handmade paper. Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Ardency Gallery, 709 Broadway, Oakland, 836-0831, www.artolio.com 

“Ton of Joy” Through Mar. 1: Group show of twelve painters and sculptors: Simone Anders, Susan Brady, Erin Fitzgerald, Karen Frey, Kei Hanafusa, Nancy Legge, Burke Rainey, Robin Sebourn, Kristen Throop, Clay Vajgrt, Whitney Vosburgh, Ann West; Mon. - Sat., 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Hollis Street Project, 5900 Hollis St., Emeryville. 

“Celebrating the African Diaspora” Through Mar. 1: A Black History Month Exhibit celebrating the contributions of Africans in America and throughout the Diaspora. 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.; University of Creation Sprituality, 2141 Broadway, Oakland, 835-4827 x31 

“Ansel Adams in the University of California Collections” Through Mar. 10: A selection of photographs and memorabilia presenting a different perspective on Adam’s career as one of the leading figures in American photography; Through Mar. 24: “Migrations: Photographs by Sebastiao Salgado,” over 300 black-and-white photographs of immigrants and refugees taken by the Brazilian photographer. Wed. - Sun. 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4- $6. The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

“A Retrospective Show” Through Mar. 13: The Women’s Cancer Resource Center “The Art of Living Black,” an Open Studios event for local African American artists. The Gallery features a retrospective show of the work of the late Jan Hart-Schuyers. Mon. - Thurs. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., Sat. 12 - 4 p.m., Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 3023 Shattuck Ave., 548-9286 x307, www.wcrc.org. 

The Richmond Art Center Through Mar. 16: “The Art of Living Black 2002: The sixth Annual Bay Area Black Artists Exhibition and Art Tour,” group exhibition of 81 artists; “Introspección Dual: Recent Painting by Verónica B. Rojas and Santiago Gervas”; “Transmutations: Recent work by Tim Jag”; “The NIAD` Family,” Artwork from the National Institute of Art and Disabilities; “Still Here,” collaborative art project about AIDS in the 21st century; “Girls in the Hall,” artwork by girls incarcerated in the San Francisco juvenile justice system; Tues. - Fri., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; The Art of Living Black Art Tour Weekend: Mar. 2 and 3, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; 2540 Barrett Ave., 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org. 

“Stas Orlovski” Feb. 16 through Mar. 23: New work by Stas Orlovski featuring a series of large paintings and drawings examining the relationships between body and landscape and eastern and western aesthetics. Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Traywick Gallery, 1316 Tenth St., 527-1214 

“Average Female (Perfect)” Through Mar. 24: Manhattan-based artist Sowon Kwon projects footage of the first ever perfect-scoring gymnasts: Romanian, Nadia Comanece and Russian, Nelli Kim at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Kwon superimposes over the gymnasts a hand-drawn outline of the “average” female body to direct the audience’s attention to the gymnasts’ movements throughout their performances. Wed. - Sun 11 a.m. - 7 p.m., $4 - $6. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

"Earthly Pleasures" assemblage and photographs by Susan Danis, Through March 30: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Mon. - Sat.; Sticks, 1579 B, Solano Ave., 526-6603.  

“Domestic Bliss” Through Apr. 4: Collection of abstract paintings and mixed medium by Amy St. George. Albany Community Center Foyer Gallery, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany, 524-9283. 

Trillium Press: Past, Present and Future Feb. 15 through April 13: Works created at Trillium Press by 28 artists. Tues. - Fri. noon - 5:30 p.m., Sat. noon - 4:30 p.m.; Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., 549-2977, www.kala.org.  

“The Legacy of Social Protest: The Disability Rights Movement” Through April 30: The first exhibition in a series dealing with Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Social Protest Movements of the 60s and 70s in California. Photograghs by: Cathy Cade, HolLynn D’Lil, Howard Petrick, Ken Stein. The Free Speech Cafe, Moffitt Undergraduate Library, University of California-Berkeley, hjadler@yahoo.com.  

“The Art History Museum of Berkeley” Masterworks by Guy Colwell. Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9, 2028 Ninth St., 841-4210, www.atelier9.com. 

“Jurassic Park: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs” Feb. 2 through May 12: An exhibit displaying models of the sets and dinosaur sculptures used in the Jurassic Park films, as well as a video presentation and a dig pit where visitors can dig for specially buried dinosaur bones. $8 adults, $6, youth and seniors. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Dr., above the UC Berkeley campus, 642-5132, www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

“The Image of Evil in Art” Feb. 7 through May 31: An exhibit exploring the varying depictions of the devil in art. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2541. 

“The Pottery of Ocumichu” Feb. 7 through May 31: A case exhibit of the imaginative Mexican pottery made in the village of Ocumichu, Michoacan. Known particularly for its playful devil figures, Ocumichu pottery also presents fanciful everyday scenes as well as religious topics. Call ahead for hours. The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd., 649-2540 

Readings 

Black Oak Books Feb. 27: 7:30 p.m., Author & Activist Randy Schutt discussing his new book "Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good 

Society." 1491 Shattuck Ave., 486-0698. 

Boadecia’s Books Feb. 9: 7:30 p.m., Loolwa Khazzoom reads from her new book “Conseqence: Beyond Resisting Rape” which takes a street savy look at street harassment. The evening will include a screening of the film “War Zone” and several spoken word presentations. Free. 398 Colusa, Kensington, 595-4642 

Cody’s on Fourth St. Feb. 15: Nuala O’Faolain talks about “My Dream of You”; Feb. 19: Tracy Hogg will tell “Secrets of the Baby Whisperer for Toddlers”; Feb. 21: Dan Bessie discusses Alvah Bessie’s Spanish Civil War Notebooks; Feb. 27: 6 p.m., Rodney Yee brings “Yoga: The Poetry of the Body”; Feb. 28: Rosemary Wells talks about children, children’s books, and the importance of reading; All events begin at 7 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 1730 Fourth St., 559-9500, www.codysbooks.com.  

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Feb. 7: Mark Kurlansky considers “Salt: A World History”; Feb. 11: Edward O. Wilson discusses “The Future of Life”; Feb. 12: Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé offer “Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet”; Feb. 15: Cindy Engel describes “Wild Health: How Animals Keep Themselves Well and What We Can Learn From Them”; Feb. 19: Robert Cohen reads from “Inspired Sleep”; Feb. 22: “The Whole World is Watching,” a panel discussion with Harold Adler, Leon F. Litwack, Charles Wollenberg, Hollynn D’Lil, Ronald J. Riesterer and Cathy Cade; Feb. 25: David Henry Sterry describes “Chicken: Self-portrait of a Young Man for Rent”; Feb. 26: Carter Scholz reads from “Radiance”; All events begin at 7:30 p.m. unless noted and ask a $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Coffee With a Beat Feb. 2: Julia Vinograd, Shauna Rogan; Feb. 9: Sydney Bell, Debrale Pagan; All readings 7-9 p.m., free and followed by open mike. 458 Perkins, Oakland, 526-5985.  

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore Feb. 5: William Chapman presents slides and reads from his book, “The Face of Tibet”; Feb. 7: A panel of female travel writers read from their works published in “The Unsavvy Travelers”, a chronicle of hilarious tales of cathartic misadventures on the road; Feb. 19: Christopher Baker, author of “Costa Rica: Moon Handbook” presents a slide show demonstrating what makes the Central American country so appealing; Richard Sterling, author of Lonely Planet’s “World Food: Greece”, presents a culinary tour revealing the culture and character of Greece through the medium of her cuisine’s; Feb. 28: Terrence Ward reads from his book “Searching for Hassan: An American Family’s Journey Home to Iran”; All readings are free and start at 7:30 p.m., 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose, 843-3533. 

Shambhala Booksellers Feb. 3: 7 p.m., William Peterson will read from his latest book “Voices in the Dark: Esoteric, Occult & Secular Voices in Nazi-Occupied Paris 1990-1994”. Free. 242 Telegraph Ave., 848-8443 

Poetry 

Poetry Flash @ Cody’s Feb. 6: Adrianne Marcus, Diana O’Hehir; Feb. 10: Cathy Coldman, Judith Serin; Feb. 13: Murray Silverstein, Gillian Wegener, Helen Wickes; Feb. 17: Sharon Doubiago, Doren Robbins; Feb. 20: Linda Elkin, Steve Rood; Feb. 27: Stephen Kessler and John Oliver Simon; All events begin at 7:30 p.m., $2 donation. 2454 Telegraph Ave., 845-7852, www.codysbooks.com.  

Tours 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, scaled to size. Trains run Sun., 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sun., noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623. 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387. 

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins; $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Mon. and Wed., 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tues. and Fri., 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thur., 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 2065 Kittredge St. 647-1111 or www.habitot.org. 

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821. 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

Oakland Museum of California Feb. 14: 1 p.m., Diane Curry shares her experiences researching photographic archives for the history of Oakland, free; Feb. 17: 12 - 4 p.m., A family program in which artists engage families in creative projects inspired by the work of California African American artists; 2 - 3 p.m., Artist Raymond Howell discusses his creative process and artistic techniques. $6 general, $4 seniors and students with ID. 10th & Oak St., 238-2200, www.museumca.org 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley, 642-5132, www.lhs.berkeley.edu. 

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Saturday, Feb. 16

 

Puppet Show 

1:30 and 2:30 p.m. 

Hall of Health, Children’s Hospital Oakland 

2230 Shattuck Ave. 

Includes puppets from diverse cultures and with such conditions as cerebral palsy, blindness, and Down syndrome. Free. 549-1564. 

 

Launch Party for War Times 

4 p.m. 

Mandela Village 

1357 Fifth St., West Oakland 

A new national anti-war newspaper covering an alternative truth. 869-5156. 

 

BANA, Berkeley Alliance of  

Neighborhood Associations 

9:30 - ll a.m.  

Live Oak Park, Fireside Room 

l30l Shattuck Ave. 

Neighbors are welcome to network and connect on issues with groups across the city. 848-3l75, HCMuir@mindspring.com. 

 

Judi Bari Takes on the FBI 

7:30 p.m. 

Unitarian Fellowship 

Cedar and Bonita St. 

Benefit for the Judi Bari suit against the FBI. $5 - $15. 415-927-1645. 

 

Habitual Avoidance of Intimacy? 

5 - 6:30 p.m. 

Twelve-step meeting for sexual, social, and emotional anorexia. Open to anyone who wants to recover from habitual avoidance of intimacy. Call first, 548-1285. 

 

Fundraiser for BHS Common Ground Costa Rica trip 

9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 

1924 Cedar St. 

Humongous multi-family Berkeley High School indoor garage sale. Marciagoodman@aol.com. 

 

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Sunday, Feb. 17

Jewish Learning Seminar 

10 a.m. - noon 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

K’Tanim: A Celebration of Jewish Learning for Families with Young Children, Birth to 3. Family activities, songs, stories, crafts, and discussions. $10. To register call: 549-9447 x 104. 

Plant Meditations: Cultivating Your Relationship with the Healing Power of Herbs 

7:30 p.m. 

The Berkeley Psychic Institute 

2018 Allston Way 

Spend the evening exploring the many ways of communicating with the healing presence of the plants. $10 donation, 644-1600. 

Monday, Feb. 18

BART Operates Regular Saturday  

Service for “President’s Day 

Beginning at 6 a.m. until midnight on all five lines. 465-2278. 

The East Bay Coalition Against the War Movie/Speaker and Discussion Night 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Fellowship of Humanity  

390 27th St., Oakland 

We will show the Noam Chomsky Video on 9/11 and the War on Terror. Plus guest speaker, Denny Riley, Vietnam Veteran and a member of the Veterans Speaker’s Alliance. The film and speaker will take about one to one and a half hours. The rest of the time will be devoted to small and large group discussion about our current struggle in response to “the war on terrorism.” 

Tuesday, Feb. 19

Berkeley Garden Club  

Hosts “Crystal Palaces” 

1 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St. 

Ann Cunningham, author of “Crystal Palaces” will present slides of glass houses from the turn of the century to the present. Scott Medburry, Director Strybing Arboretum & Botanic Garden, will talk about the history of San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers including an update on its recent renovation. 524-4374. 

21st Century McCarthyism & The Rise of the Global Police State 

6 - 8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Wheeler Auditorium 

The following speakers present their interpretations of September 11 and its aftermath: Angela Davis, Diane Clemens and Jennifer Terry. Sponsored by the Departments of Women's Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, & Ethnic Studies, and Professors for Peace. xperales@uclink.berkeley.edu. 

Pioneering Woman Federal Judge 

4:30 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

Boalt Hall, Room 100 

The Hon. Mary M. Schroeder, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, speaks on "Justice and Mercy." Inaugural event of American Constitution Society for Law & Policy, Boalt Hall Chapter. 642-1741, amconstsoc@law.berkeley.edu. 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

Wednesday, Feb. 20

Staying Connected: Building A Secular Jewish Life 

7:30 - 9:15 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

An evening of discussion and song with a Klezmer/Yiddish musician. $5. 848-0237 x 127 

Institute of Government Studies 

4 p.m. 

119 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

Gerald Gamm lectures as part of the Historical Institutionalism Seminar. 642-4608, www.igs.berkeley.edu 

Colonial Courts, African Conflicts,  

and the End of Slavery in the French Souda 

4 - 6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley  

3335 Dwinelle, Level "C" 

A talk by Richard Roberts of Stanford University. Sponsored by Department of History, Department of African-American Studies, and Center for African Studies. 642-8338. 

Cultural Competency in Healthcare 

6 - 7:30 p.m. 

Berkeley YWCA  

2600 Bancroft Way 

Racial Justice Lecture Series and discussion on overcoming ethnic and gender differences to deliver healthcare in under-served populations. 848-6370, www.ywca-berkeley.org. 

East Bay Job Fair 

noon - 6 p.m. 

Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center 

10 10th St., Oakland 

The United Way of the Bay Area, Economic Development Alliance for Business, and Bay Area Works are hosting a job fair. Free and open to everyone. 238-2410, www.uwba.org.  

Thursday, Feb. 21

Barbara Lee 

8 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

145 Dwinelle Hall 

Rep. Barbara Lee will be on campus. Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club and the Center on Politics. 642-9355, www.igs.berkeley.edu:8880/. 

Purim Lecture 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Discover the deeper meaning of Purim as Rabbi Alexander Sheinfeld uses the lens of Kabbalah to explore what Purim has to do with being Jewish and with being human. $10, $8 members. 848-0237 x127 

Zimbabwe Wildlife 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Julie Edwards of Rhino Girl Safaris gives a slide presentation showcasing Zimbabwe’s remarkable variety of birds and mammals, and discusses the future of wildlife and the safari industry in Africa. 527-7377 

Travel Photography Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore 

1385 Shattuck Ave. 

An intensive workshop that focuses on travel photography, with an emphasis on film and equipment security, light and weather conditions, methods to make the most of well-known sites, and ways to approach and photograph strangers. $15. 843-3533 

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

"TV and Media” - Several people who have given up their TV's will talk about the difficulties and benefits. 549-3509, www.seeds of simplicity.org. 

Take the Terror Out of Talking 

noon - 1:10 p.m. 

Calif. Dept. Health Services 

2151 Berkeley Way 

Room 804 

State Health Toastmasters Club is presenting a six-week Speechcraft workshop to help you overcome your fear of speaking in public and improve your communication skills. Cost is $36 for six sessions, Feb. 21, 28 & March 7, 14, 21. 649-7750. 

Friday, Feb. 22

Grand Canyon Splendor: Rafting the Colorado 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Guidebook author and former river guide, Tyler Williams, presents the dramatic beauty of the Grand Canyon in his slide presentation on rafting the Colorado. 527-7377 

Still Stronger Women 

1:15 - 3:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Short stories. 232-1351. 

Saturday, Feb. 23

Archaeological Institute of America 

3 p.m. 

Shorb House 

2547 Channing Way 

Lecture by Dr. Stuart Swiny discussing Cypriot rituals surrounding fertility, life and death from the Neolithic to the Roman era. 415-338-1537, barbaram@sfsu.edu. 

Paying for Public Education: 

Whose Job Is It? 

3 - 5:30 p.m. 

Ocean View Elementary School 

Multi-Purpose Room 

1000 Jackson St., Albany 

A forum with Kevin Gordon of the Education Coalition, who will explain state-level funding for K-12 schools. Candidates for the California Assembly 14th District seat Debate: Dave Brown (D), Loni Hancock (D), and Charles Ramsey (D). 524-7004, hao_kco@pacbell.net.  

Sunday, Feb. 24

Monday, Feb. 25 

A Rose Grew in Brooklyn: Stories from a Jewish Girlhood 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St. 

Local author and therapist, Rose Fox reads from her memoir. 

Institute of Government Studies 

12 p.m. 

119 Moses Hall 

UC Berkeley Campus 

John Matsasuka presents a lecture entitled “For the Many or the Few: How the Initiative Process Changes American Government”. 642-4608, www.igs.berkeley.edu 

Tuesday, Feb. 26

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 525-3565. 

Wednesday, Feb. 27

Berkeley Gray Panthers 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Defending and improving Medicare. 548-9696, graypanthers@hotmail.com.  

Berkeley Mental Health Commission 

6:30 p.m. 

2640 Martin Luther King Jr. Way 

Auditorium 

Berkeley mental health clinic. 644-8562. 

Thursday, Feb. 28

Cody's Evening for Parents and Teachers 

7 p.m. 

Cody's Books 

1730 Fourth St. 

Rosemary Wells, children's author of dozens of books including Max and Ruby and Noisy Nora, will discuss children, books, and the importance of reading to your children. 527-6667, www.parentsnet.org. 

Trekking in Bhutan 

7 p.m. 

Recreational Equipment, Inc. 

1338 San Pablo Ave. 

Seasoned traveler, Ruther Anne Kocour will share slides and stories of her adventures trekking in this majestic country. 527-7377 

Take the Terror Out of Talking 

noon - 1:10 p.m. 

Calif. Dept. Health Services 

2151 Berkeley Way 

Room 804 

State Health Toastmasters Club is presenting a six-week Speechcraft workshop to help you overcome your fear of speaking in public and improve your communication skills. Cost is $36 for six sessions, Feb. 28 & March 7, 14, 21. 649-7750. 

The Writing Life 

4:30 p.m. 

North Branch Library 

1170 The Alameda 

Peter S. Beagle will discuss his works and the life and times of a professional writer. 649-3913, www.infopeople.org/bpl. 

Photographing the Famous 

7:30 p.m. 

College Preparatory School Auditorium 

1600 Broadway, Oakland 

Michael Collopy will talk about photographing the famous (Mother Teresa, Frank Sinatra, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela).

Superintendent Michele Lawrence recommended an initial wave of $3 million in cuts, including the closure of City of Franklin School, in a budget proposal released Friday. 

Lawrence, who would trim $1.1 million from the central office, also laid the groundwork for heavy layoffs, which would include more than 100 teachers. 

The Board of Education, which needs to cut about $6 million in order to balance the budget next year, will discuss Lawrence’s recovery plan during its Feb. 20 meeting, and is expected to vote on it Feb. 27. The board will not vote on the official 2002-2003 budget until June. 

Lawrence has discussed the need for multi-million dollar cuts for weeks, but the proposal still hit school activists and elected officials hard Friday. 

“Quite honestly, it’s a bit depressing now,” said school board member John Selawsky. “Seeing the reality of it, it kind of shakes you up.” 

Lawrence said recommending the closure of City of Franklin, a K-6 school, was a “very painful” decision. But she said the 3-year-old magnet program has failed to draw an appropriate number of students. 

“It’s a school of barely 200 and we can’t afford to run it,” she said. “The overhead, the administrative costs, are just too high.” 

The district estimates that closure will save $326,000, plus tens of thousands in transportation costs. 

“It’s very upsetting,” said Shay Williams, parent of a first-grader at City of Franklin, arguing that the school should have more time to increase enrollment. 

Shirley Issel, president of the Board of Education, said she will seek input in the next two weeks before making a decision on the school’s closure. 

“It’s very important to hear from anyone who wants to address the board before I make up my mind,” Issel said. 

Lawrence’s budget proposal identifies about 300 positions for potential layoffs, including 70 to 80 “temporary” or beginning teachers employed by the district. The document also targets 20 “permanent” teacher positions in grades four through eight and 12.2 slots at Berkeley High School.  

The proposal also names librarians, reading teachers and music instructors among dozens of others who could be laid off. 

But the district will not necessarily let go all of the employees on the list. By law, the system must notify certain classes of teachers and administrators by March 15 if it intends to let them go next year.  

Lawrence and school board members say they hope to take back some of the lay off notices before the end of the year if they are able to realize additional savings between March 15 and the official June budget vote. 

The district is currently pursuing special legislation to forgive a $1.1 million fine owed to the state for failure to turn in a professional development document on time, but Lawrence is not optimistic about forgiveness. 

Rick Ayers, an English instructor at BHS, said he is concerned about the layoffs. 

“We’re just hoping a lot of good teachers don’t get pushed out by this,” he said, adding that normal resignations and retirements may soften the blow. 

“We’re going to keep working as hard as we can to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible,” Lawrence said. 

She added that literacy programs will be a top priority, and noted that librarians and “reading recovery” instructors will be near the top of her list for employees she will attempt to retain. 

Selawsky also voiced his strong support for the district’s early literacy program. “We’ve got to save that, from my point of view,” he said. 

Lawrence’s proposal also calls for a shift from a seven- to a six-period day at BHS, saving the school eight full-time teaching positions and an estimated $520,000.  

Science teachers have expressed concern that the move will reduce or eliminate the school’s successful double-period science program. 

Lawrence’s proposal would increase BHS class size from 29 to 31 students, and use the savings to pay for an additional 20 to 30 “flex time” class sections outside the normal six-period day. 

Rodney Kopish, a biology teacher at BHS, said he hopes the outside sections will allow for some partial continuation of double-period science.  

Lawrence said extra science classes are a possibility, but warned that the flex periods could also be used for leadership classes, orchestra, the school newspaper and other activities. 

The superintendent’s reorganization of the central office involves some 35 layoffs, $844,000 in cuts from the business office and $311,000 from the educational services office. 

The superintendent would, among other things, fold administration of the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project, a special local tax, into the district’s business office. Until now, BSEP has been administered by a separate, independent body. 

Nancy Riddle, co-chair of the BSEP planning and oversight committee, said she has concerns about the loss of independent management of the local tax, which generated about $10 million this year and may only be used for certain purposes, like class size reduction. 

“When times are rough, it’s really tempting to dip into restricted funds,” she said, arguing that the shift to district management could lead to a plundering of BSEP funds.  

“I have absolutely none of those fears,” Lawrence responded, arguing that her administration will be more careful with district funds than its predecessors. “We know the difference between restricted money and unrestricted money.”

Dear Governor Davis: 

Why are we spending billions to build a new half a bridge when by the time it is built, it will be a commuter parking lot 24/7? 

It is obvious that the people who make these decisions (you, Willie and Jerry Brown, etc.) can not see out the tinted windows of your limousine if in fact you do get caught on the Bay Bridge at rush hour (6 to 9 a.m., 3:30 to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday evenings ...) when it may take upwards of an hour to get across the three-mile span. 

Why aren’t we building a bridge from San Leandro to San Mateo, which Frank Lloyd Wright has already designed with a park in the middle. Sounds a little different, but the bridge would have rail, bike lanes etc. ... It would actually help relieve the strain of traffic on the existing Bay Bridge (hey, is this a new concept?). Meanwhile, we could retrofit the existing bridge, which held up pretty damn well during the 1989 Loma Prieta quake. Oh, sorry, what am I thinking. Scrape the plans for the new single-span thing-a-ma-bob? 67,000 jobs put on hold? Ruin your chances of re-election? Please excuse the sarcasm, but it helps me cope.  

No, it is not to late to stop this project and do it right.  

Andrew Berna-Hicks 

Oakland

The Zoning Adjustments Board unanimously approved a Use Permit for a controversial four-storey, 40-unit senior residence on Sacramento Street at the site of the former Outback clothing store. 

The bleary-eyed ZAB members cast their votes after closing the public hearing on the mixed-use project at 2:30 a.m. Friday at the end of an especially long meeting. 

About 100 people attended the meeting to make comments for and against the project during the public hearing. But as the hours dragged on, the crowd thinned until there was about 12 speakers for each side.  

Opponents complained the project at 2517 Sacramento St. is too dense for the mostly residential neighborhood. Proponents, many who are elderly, argued that affordable housing is in critical need, especially for seniors. 

The project, which will be built by the nonprofit developer Affordable Housing Associates, will include 30 low- and very low-income units for seniors. The remaining 10 units will be leased to moderate income tenants.  

AHA Executive Director Ali Kashani estimated the project will cost $8.8 million to complete. He added that if additional funding is secured this summer, the project is expected to break ground in early October. 

Kashani said the mixed-use project will be 42,000 square feet including 3,600 square feet or commercial space. The project will also have 12 parking spaces. 

“We are very excited the city leaders have put their faith in us to build this project,” said Kashani, who has sought approval for the project since June of 1999. 

South Berkeley resident Howie Muir, who spoke in opposition to the project, said the unit density was inappropriate for the neighborhood. 

“The approval of the project as proposed literally represents the imposition of downtown density in a lower density neighborhood,” Muir wrote in a statement on Friday. “The project is equal to 100 units per acre in an area the (General Plan) foresaw as “medium” density, of 40 units per acre.”

Editor: 

Warnings of the FBI to be on increased alert for terrorism are effectively subverted and attenuated by the federal fifth column actions by the Justice Department’s DEA. (Or is it the other way around?)  

Right wing Republican Enronites exploit the threat of foreign terror to attack civil and state’s rights. Since 9-11 we have seen an increase in domestic federal attacks against California and Oregon. The fuzzy connection of drugs with terrorism is true – but the result of prohibitory laws that set up the illicit markets.  

Undermining governance and mutual trust, the assaults against the Harm Reduction Center in San Francisco no doubt pandered to their covens. A slap in the face to uppity Terence Hallinan, San Francisco District Attorney, and the City and County of sanctuary and gays. Twelve hours before DEA chief Asa Hutchinson’s speech at the Commonwealth Club.  

Marking his turf, he cited the official extraordinary unpopular delusions and madness of Congress and the Supreme Court as the justification for his agency assaults. This toxic federal hegemony is promoted by the Bush II, Ashcroft, Hutchinson, Walters evil axes. This subverts and blunt readiness and alert by divisive persecution. 

A pathetic national version of the bible thumpers holding forth on Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley to show bravery as they sermonized in the belly of the beast. Asa showed that he could be just as nasty and meanspirited to stick it to those San Francisco, California godless deviants. On the backs of the medical marijuana patients and the California voters. 

The divisive creation of enmity and distrust by Californians of good will, wanting to do the right thing to implement and comply with will of the people expressed through their enacting the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. This is subversion and giving comfort to enemies of democracy.  

The myopic and simplistic notion promoted by the attempts to link terrorism with illicit drugs is merely efforts to seek a moral high ground and justification for a failed policy of prohibition. All perpetrated by a leadership dazed and confused- unable to conceptualize long term strategies to combat foreign terrorism. The refuge of scoundrels is seeing a mass clustering: Patriotism. Anyone conspicuously proclaiming it should undergo additional scrutiny for misdeeds. 

These elements of toxic federalism will do more to hinder the national effort to defend against terrorism. They will not deflect from the developing Enron scandals except to expose the harm that has been done to California and Oregon. 

Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D. 

Berkeley

Today is Saturday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2002. There are 318 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

On Feb. 16, 1862, during the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn. (Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the nickname “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”) 

On this date: 

In 1804, Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates. 

In 1868, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City. 

In 1918, Lithuania proclaimed its independence. 

In 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt. 

In 1945, American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II. 

In 1948, NBC TV began airing its first nightly newscast, “The Camel Newsreel Theatre,” which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels. 

In 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. 

In 1961, the United States launched the Explorer 9 satellite. 

In 1968, the nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala. 

In 1977, Janani Luwum, the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, and two other men were killed in what Ugandan authorities said was an automobile accident. 

Ten years ago: Two days before the New Hampshire primary, five Democratic presidential candidates debated on CNN, directing most of their criticism at President George H.W. Bush. Israeli helicopters attacked a convoy in Sidon, Lebanon, killing Sheik Abbas Musawi, leader of the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah. 

Five years ago: U.S. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., the chairman of the House committee investigating campaign fund-raising activities, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that his probe would be far broader than originally anticipated. 

One year ago: The United States and Britain staged air strikes against radar stations and air defense command centers in Iraq. President George W. Bush met with Mexican President Vicente Fox on the first foreign trip of Bush’s presidency. Dr. William H. Masters, who with his partner and future wife Virginia Johnson, pioneered research in the field of human sexuality, died in Tucson, Ariz., at age 85. 

Today’s Birthdays: Singer Patty Andrews is 82. Movie director John Schlesinger is 76. Actor Jeremy Bulloch is 56. Actor Pete Postlethwaite is 56. Actor William Katt is 51. Actor James Ingram is 46. Actor LeVar Burton is 45. Actor-rapper Ice-T is 44. Actress Lisa Loring is 44. Tennis Hall of Fame player John McEnroe is 43. Rock musician Andy Taylor (Duran Duran) is 41. Singer Sam Salter is 24.

John Hinkel Park is located off Arlington Avenue in north Berkeley on a steep wooded hillside. A small creek cascades through it and paths meander under native oak, bay and buckeye trees. The almost six acre park was given to the city in 1919 by John Hinkel, a downtown property owner. It was reported to be the largest gift the city had ever received. The park area was used by the Boy Scouts, and a Boy Scout Club house still stands in the park.  

Before giving the property to the city Hinkel made some notable improvements: he built a rustic redwood clubhouse, a stone fireplace and playground and also created the network of pathways. The park was conceived by Hinkel to be a natural park where the native flora would be retained and enhanced rather than being replaced it with artificial plantings. The park and clubhouse were designed by landscape architect and professor John W. Gregg, who became the first president of Berkeley's Park Commission.  

The clubhouse is located just below San Diego Road on the east side of Devon Lane, a footpath that bisects the park. Since the park was envisioned as a “natural” park, this building was designed by Gregg to fit into and blend with its natural setting.  

The rustic clubhouse is constructed of redwood inside and out and is sheathed with shingles in keeping with the concept of “building with nature” advocated by the Hillside Club. It is a simple, rectangular building with a gable roof, surrounded on three sides with a wide-covered veranda. The building is essentially one room with a small kitchen on the east side. The main floor of the building is set above a raised basement where the slope of the hillside provides for a storage room beneath. The rustic charm of this building is a significant element in the park.  

Since 1999 the clubhouse has not been used because it is in need of restoration. A group of neighbors are interested in helping to restore it. Previously it had been used by a variety of groups over the years: Ann Halprin taught dance here, Elaine Schooley taught Theater Movement for thirty years, and it was the home to the Berkeley Folk Dancers. Between 1974 -1991the basement had been used as storage for the Shakespeare Festival. The clubhouse was also a popular site for weddings and memorial services. 

The outdoor amphitheater was built later, and is located on a steep slope of the canyon overlooking the outdoor fireplace which has served as a backdrop of the stage. The theater was built by the Civil Works Administration (Project Number 5) and was dedicated on April 22, 1934. That same year the park commission reported that the “CWA funds not only provided much needed relief to the unemployed but also gave to the citizens of Berkeley a new means of cultural recreation.”  

Susan Cerny is author of “Berkeley Landmarks” and writes Berkeley Observed in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — John Walker Lindh’s trial will likely start in late August, raising the odds the former Taliban soldier will be in court on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III set Aug. 26 for jury selection, but said Friday he might later consider a defense request to move the date beyond that historic September date. 

On the day the Lindh case moved forward, Ellis handed down a 21-month prison sentence to a Virginia man who helped two of the September hijackers obtain fake Virginia identifications. 

In a third case in the same federal courthouse, a man charged with carrying false identification near the Pentagon was released on $5,000 bond after a prosecutor indicated the case may be dropped. The man was arrested Monday night, just after the FBI issued its latest terrorism alert. 

Lindh, 21, is charged in a 10-count indictment with conspiring to kill Americans, providing support to terrorists, including Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida, and using firearms during crimes of violence. Three of the charges carry a maximum life sentence and the other seven could bring an additional 90 years in prison. 

Lindh, wearing a green prison suit, sat at the defense table throughout the federal court proceeding to schedule the trial date and pretrial proceedings. During a brief recess, he spoke with his attorneys and signed papers as his parents, Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker, sat in the second row. 

Defense attorney George Harris asked the judge for a Sept. 16 trial date to get past Sept. 11, saying the defense might be presenting its side of the case on or near the anniversary. 

Harris said there was no link between the attacks and the Lindh case, but contended that Attorney General John Ashcroft tried to leave the implication there was a connection. The lawyer argued for a Sept. 16 trial date. 

“There will be memorial services. There will be a great deal of genuine emotion in this country,” Harris argued. “The government has attempted to make that connection (between the trial and the attacks). For us to be in trial at that time is prejudicial to the defendant.” 

Ellis told Harris, “I may be persuaded by the force of your argument. You may revisit this point” as the August date approaches. 

The judge, however, said he rejected defense concerns that pretrial publicity would harm Lindh’s case and told Harris he would ensure that no jurors would be selected who formed an opinion about the case. 

The Virginia man who aided the Sept. 11 hijackers, Luis Martinez-Flores, had pleaded guilty in December to one count of document fraud. 

The Falls Church, Va. man admitted he falsely certified that Hani Hanjour and Khalid Almihdhar, hijackers on the flight that crashed into the Pentagon, were Virginia residents. The hijackers paid him $100. 

At a sentencing hearing Friday, prosecutor John Morton said the defendant’s lies about potential imminent attacks on East Coast targets were brought to the attention of President Bush, Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller. 

“Hundreds of hours were wasted by investigators dealing with Mr. Martinez’s misstatements,” Morton said. 

In the third case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan ordered Imad Abdel-Fattah Hamed of Manassas, Va., released on $5,000 bond and limited his travel to the Washington, D.C. area until his arraignment. But the prosecutor indicated the case of the man arrested near the Pentagon — just after the alert — may be dropped. 

“I’m not sure that this case will actually make it that far,” said Morton, the assistant U.S. attorney. 

According to court papers filed by the FBI, Hamed and a passenger drove a red tow truck past signs that ban commercial vehicles on a highway which passes within yards of the Pentagon. 

State police stopped them and found several false identifications and a cashier’s check for $12,700.

LOS ANGELES — Californians looked for ways to boost their luck Friday as the jackpot for Saturday night’s SuperLotto Plus draw rose to $175 million. 

“Play Here” screamed lottery banners at a Chevron station in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, where the lottery craze was mixing with Chinese New Year traditions. 

“The last few days has been crazy,” said manager Joe Shiber, 48, who was seeing many first-time Lotto ticket buyers. 

Customers usually spend $1 to $5 on lottery tickets, he said, but that increased to up to $50 after Wednesday, when no one won the midweek draw and the jackpot rolled over again. 

“Now with the Chinese New Year, my Chinese customers have been spending a lot more. They tell me they’re using ’good-luck’ money,” Shiber said. 

A single jackpot winner who chose the option of 26 annual installments would receive payments starting at about $4.37 million and rising to about $8.92 million, before withholding of 27 percent federal withholding tax. The estimated cash option would be $87.5 million, or $63 million after federal taxes. 

The $175 million jackpot is a record for California. The previous mark was $141 million on June 23, 2001. 

At George’s Liquor, a Chinatown store that has sold two winning lottery tickets in the past, the line of customers went out the door and down the sidewalk. 

Stan Ng, 33, a recreational assistant, said he stood in line for 10 minutes to buy 10 SuperLotto tickets. 

“I seldomly play the Lotto, but since this is a big jackpot and it’s Chinese New Year, I’m trying my luck,” Ng said. 

Ng said he wasn’t really spending his own money because he was using “good-luck” money he’s received from relatives. He said he was also picking numbers himself, especially those with the lucky number eight. 

“I don’t believe I will win, because of the odds, but I needed to spend my good-luck money,” he said. 

Frank Benin, 37, went out of his way to buy tickets at George’s. 

“A gambler in my office told me to come here. This is a big jackpot and I felt I needed to come to a lucky place to get my tickets,” he said. 

Benin said that if he won he would build a community center in south Los Angeles and help underprivileged children. 

“It’s all for fun. You play the Lotto to see where it will take you,” he said. 

LOS ANGELES — Richard Riordan, the front-runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, has issued a challenge to fellow California Republicans: Embrace moderate stances such as support for abortion rights or risk becoming “an extinct species.” 

His opponents, businessman Bill Simon and Secretary of State Bill Jones, the GOP’s only statewide officeholder, believe Republicans can win without distancing themselves from their bedrock principles. 

Those competing visions are sure to be discussed when the candidates meet for their third and final debate Wednesday evening in Long Beach. And on March 5, when Republicans pick a challenger to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, they’ll also be determining their party’s ideological direction. 

“As the late Jess Unruh said, ’Winning isn’t everything, but losing isn’t anything,”’ said University of Southern California political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, quoting the legendary Assembly speaker of the 1960s. “That’s basically the debate, and that’s what’s driving the GOP to consider the direction in which it wants to go.” 

Riordan, 71, the former mayor of Los Angeles, leads Jones and Simon in polls and narrowly edges Davis. 

With his moderate views on social issues, Riordan was popular as mayor among women, Hispanics and independents, groups Republicans must attract to beat Davis. Thirty-five percent of the state’s voters are Republicans while 45 percent are Democrats. 

Riordan’s crossover appeal led most of the state’s GOP leadership to embrace his candidacy, and President Bush reportedly urged him to run. 

But in hewing to his promise of broadening the party’s reach, Riordan has largely ignored its conservative base. He doesn’t identify himself as a Republican in campaign literature, and revelations of his financial support for Democratic candidates have incensed some of the GOP loyalists most likely to vote in the primary. 

Party activists picked Simon, who lives in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles, in a nonbinding straw poll at last weekend’s state GOP convention, and several conservative leaders, including former Gov. George Deukmejian, announced they won’t vote for Riordan if he becomes the nominee. Deukmejian is Jones’ campaign chairman. 

“Riordan made the decision several months ago that he was going to run a campaign directed very strongly and specifically at those swing voters that Republicans have lost in past elections,” said Republican strategist Dan Schnur, who worked briefly for Riordan. “In doing so, he may have created an opportunity for a more conservative challenger to reach out to the party’s base.” 

Riordan aides counter that he does have support from many conservative leaders, in part because of his untraditional approach. 

“In California, the Republican Party unfortunately has taken on a negative image,” Riordan strategist Kevin Spillane said. ”... We need to demonstrate that we’re a party that provides political opportunity and power to women, Asian-Americans and other minorities.” 

At the first GOP debate, Riordan announced the need for a “new Republican Party ... of inclusiveness” and said the anti-abortion positions of Jones and Simon “would turn (the Republican Party) from an endangered species into an extinct species.” 

Jones and Simon, both traditional conservatives, took strong issue with that. They contend the GOP can attract diverse voters without moderating its core stances. 

“Some in our party suggest that only a liberal can win and we have to nominate a liberal even if he sounds like a Democrat,” Simon told the party faithful last weekend to cheers and applause. “Some have suggested that our ideas no longer work and can’t lead another California comeback. We have a better idea, don’t we?” 

GOP strategists point to President Bush’s success as an example of how Republicans can reach out beyond the party’s base without wavering on their principles. 

Although the GOP has been a minority party in the state since the 1930s, voters have elected Republican governors again and again, from Ronald Reagan to Deukmejian to Davis’ predecessor, Pete Wilson. But the party has suffered a string of recent setbacks. 

Wilson did Republicans lasting harm with Hispanics with his support for anti-immigrant Proposition 187 in 1994. The GOP’s last gubernatorial nominee, then-state Attorney General Dan Lungren, lost to Davis in 1998 by a margin of 20 percentage points. Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans in the state Legislature. 

All this has led to a consensus that the Republican Party must be more inclusive. For Riordan to succeed, Republican voters must conclude that that requires adopting more moderate positions. 

“The only way to know whether he’s done it well or not is to wait until the day after the election,” Schnur said.

STOCKTON — Hoping to save his political skin, Rep. Gary Condit is shaking every hand he can. 

Last Friday, that quest took him to a retirement home in this former Gold Rush depot, where he flashed his wide grin and started pumping hands. 

“I’m Gary Condit,” he told a woman, who said he looked familiar. 

Familiar maybe, but not someone any of them could vote for. 

Most of those he met said they were Republicans and unable to vote for him in the March 5 primary. Even the Democrats couldn’t vote for Condit: The Bayside Landing community is not even in his redrawn congressional district. 

Rookie mistakes like this only reinforce how uphill Condit’s bid for re-election is. 

After a summer of bad publicity and abandonment by many of his Washington colleagues and political donors, Condit is running more like an underdog than a 12-year veteran. 

His mailer plaintively asks voters: “Perhaps you will reconsider me when you vote for Congress.” 

In person, however, Condit uses the charm that has given him an undefeated, 30-year electoral record, one that made him a household name in California’s Central Valley before it was linked to that of missing Washington intern Chandra Levy. 

His weekend campaign swing started Friday morning at a Christian radio station, where Condit, the son of a Baptist minister, talked issues with four other Democratic candidates. 

Into the crowd in their Sunday best walked Condit, wearing boots, blue jeans, a plaid shirt and corduroy jacket. He displayed clear command of the issues — the economy, energy and farming. The other candidates echoed his answers. 

But the incumbent first elected to the Ceres city council in 1972 now looks more like a challenger, while his longtime friend, ally and protege, Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, plays the front-runner. 

Cardoza has won important endorsements, has an edge in the polls and has raised more money than Condit — $144,000 at year’s end to Condit’s $36,000. He held a Washington fund-raiser last week that aimed to bring in $40,000; Condit had a dinner in Turlock on Friday that raised about $5,750. 

Condit once did TV commercials for Cardoza. Cardoza now does his own TV spots, while Condit can afford only radio. 

Cardoza turned down the radio appearance, as well as more than 20 requests for debates, in part to avoid questions about Levy, said his spokesman Doug White. 

Condit called that “disingenuous,” because Cardoza “wouldn’t be running if it wasn’t for the Chandra Levy case.” 

After Levy vanished in May, Condit’s stronghold collapsed. Police sources said he admitted having a romance with Levy, 24, but is not considered a suspect in her disappearance. 

Condit will not talk about it in any detail, saying he has no idea what happened to her. “It would be wonderful if she would turn up, and she would be healthy and everything,” he said. “It’s something I pray about every day.” 

Levy’s name was not mentioned during the radio show or at a candidates’ forum on Sunday, which Cardoza did attend. But the case hangs over the campaign, in part because the 10 other people running would be doing something else if Levy never disappeared. 

Condit is also facing a redrawn district full of voters who primarily know of him through news reports. The new district, approved by the Legislature in September, has a strong Democratic edge, but Condit lost much of his base. 

As a result, the Condit who hustled from the cameras last summer is courting the media, often joking with photographers. The man who skipped public appearances is now spending as much time as he can walking precincts, speaking at churches and rallying his supporters. 

At Krazy Gal’s Kafe in Gustine on Saturday, Condit slapped supporters on the back and called farmers by name. He hugged and kissed Janet Carlsen, the former mayor of nearby Newman, who said she loves Cardoza but still supports Condit and thinks he will pull out a victory. 

“I feel safe with Gary,” she said. 

Waitress Lisa Partlow said Condit’s visit made her and her 17-year-old daughter, a dishwasher at the restaurant, uncomfortable because of the Levy scandal. 

“One woman asked if I was a supporter,” Partlow said. “I said, ‘No I’m not’ and she said, ’I don’t imagine any mother with daughters our age would be.”’ 

If he loses the primary, Condit said, he will not rule out anything, including running as an independent in November or returning to work as a welder, a job he held in his teens. 

He suggested there is an undercurrent of support from the voters that does not register in the polls. 

“Voters have a funny way of making things fair,” he said.

WASHINGTON — Two California Democrats on Thursday said they would try to end any prospect for new drilling for gas and oil off the central California coast by letting energy companies swap their leases for similar rights in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said she and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., will introduce legislation to allow energy companies that hold 36 leases that the federal government granted decades ago to obtain credits for their investment that they could apply to oil and gas exploration in the central and western Gulf of Mexico. The bill would include four other leases that had been canceled but are tied up in court. 

The bill would permanently ban drilling in the tracts that range from northern Ventura County to southern San Luis Obispo County, Boxer said. 

The lease sites “would become an ecological preserve, never more to be touched,” Boxer said. 

The swap would cost the government $1 billion to $2.8 billion, she said. 

Boxer said her staff has been assured by some of the energy companies that they back the swap. She said she will try to make her measure part of a broad energy bill that the Senate will take up in early March. 

Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, whose district would be most affected by new drilling, will sponsor a similar bill in the House of Representatives. 

Boxer, Capps and 30 other California lawmakers on Thursday also filed legal documents in a lawsuit over the leases. A federal judge last year halted all oil and natural gas exploration, siding with California officials who adamantly oppose new drilling and who argued that the state has authority to restrict new exploration. The decision left energy companies wondering whether they simply would lose the money they have invested. 

The Bush administration recently decided to appeal last year’s court ruling, arguing that the lease owners’ property rights are at stake. The lawmakers oppose the appeal. 

“This ... is about local control and California’s right to be at the table when the federal government is making decisions that affect its coastline,” Capps said. “We cannot risk another oil spill off of our coast.” 

President George Bush banned new drilling off California’s coast in 1990 and President Clinton later extended it to 2012. But those presidential edicts did not cover existing oil platforms or the 40 leases on tracts that have yet to be developed. The leases allow for exploration, but no drilling. 

Boxer’s legislation would require all the lease holders to agree to the swap and to end all outstanding lawsuits over the leases. If those conditions are met, the Secretary of the Interior would be directed to cancel the leases and offer equivalent rights off the coast of Louisiana and Texas, where oil platforms are more numerous. 

Jim Bray, a spokesman for lease holder Nuevo Energy of Houston, said his company would consider a swap, although he has not seen Boxer’s legislation. “But our message to the senator has been, ’This has been going on for 20 years,”’ Bray said. “It’s time to move forward.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Rep. Capps: http://www.house.gov/capps 

LOS ANGELES — After months of unrelenting attacks from the Republicans who want to unseat him, Gov. Gray Davis will face a friendly crowd at the California Democratic Party convention this weekend. 

Davis is scheduled to speak at the gathering that falls in the heart of an intense Republican primary race to challenge him, and as he continues to launch counterattacks at GOP front-runner Richard Riordan. 

“The party is focused on re-electing Gov. Gray Davis in California,” said party spokesman Bob Mulholland. 

The general election is more than eight months away, and Davis is virtually uncontested in the March 5 primary. But he has been the consistent target of the three men vying for the GOP nod and a national Republican party hungry to regain power in California. 

Plus, a crippling power crisis last year and budget crisis this year also have chipped away at Davis’ popularity and he has slightly trailed Riordan in some recent statewide polls. 

Davis has poured more than $4 million into television ads in recent weeks, many of which criticize Riordan for his stance on abortion, the death penalty and his record of crime. 

Riordan, who also has come under fire from some members of his own party for left-leaning stances on some issues, has brushed aside barbs from his Republican opponents and aimed his attacks squarely at Davis. 

As a result, the campaign is likely to consume much of the meeting of the Democratic Party’s most loyal activists at Los Angeles’ Westin Bonaventure Hotel. 

“It’s an opportunity to rally the activists and to energize them for the November election,” said David Lara-Tellez, chairman of the Riverside County Democratic Party. 

Party leaders also will be focusing on a handful of contested primaries, including the open seats for secretary of state, controller and insurance commissioner. 

Also, two key figures in the campaign finance reform debate will address the convention. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and nation’s highest-ranking female legislator, House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, are scheduled to speak Saturday. 

The Democratic convention is falling one week after a raucous Republican party convention in San Jose, where steep divisions have formed among the gubernatorial candidate supporters. 

Many Republicans believe Riordan is the party’s best hope the win the governor’s seat in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans. But others, including former Gov. George Deukmejian, have said they doubt his loyalty and said they would not vote for him in the general election is he is the nominee. 

Mulholland said the Democrats plan to remain positive at their annual gathering, “compared to the cannibalism at the Republican convention last weekend.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

The California Democratic Party Web site is http://www.ca-dems.org 

TUCSON, Ariz. — Seven California condors born in captivity will be released Saturday atop northern Arizona’s Vermillion Cliffs, adding to the current population of 25 in Arizona. 

However, officials nearly postponed the release because at least two previously released condors had eaten from coyotes that had been killed with lead shot. Scavengers and birds of prey, including condors, often die from lead poisoning after eating game killed with lead gunshot. 

“Since we were able to capture the birds at risk and determine through initial tests that they’re healthy, we’re confident that we can move ahead with the condor release as scheduled,” said Chris Parish, field coordinator for the Peregrine Fund. 

Biologists with the Peregrine Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal and state agencies plan to release 11 new condors in all in the 10th such release since efforts to restore the birds to the wild began in 1996. 

California condors are the biggest and among the most ancient of North America’s birds. They nearly became extinct — dropping to only 22 in 1982 — before biologists launched a multimillion-dollar recovery program. As of January, there was a total California condor population of 183. 

Ten of the birds being released were born in captivity last year at the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey. The other was hatched in 1999 at the San Diego Zoo. 

A pair of condors among the 25 living in or near the Grand Canyon produced an egg in a cave there last year, believed to be the first in the wild since the early 1980s, but the egg did not hatch, said Jeff Cilek, a spokesman for the Boise, Idaho-based Peregrine Fund. 

Scientists are hopeful other eggs will be laid and hatched successfully this year, Cilek said. 

Condors, which are strict scavengers, do not normally reproduce until they are about six years old, he said. Typically, females produce one egg every other year. Incubation takes 56 days. 

David Harlow, Arizona field supervisor for Fish and Wildlife, called condor recovery efforts in Arizona “an overwhelming success” in terms of the surviving wild population. 

“We anxiously await the first successful breeding and egg hatching of condors in the wild since the early ’80s,” he said. 

Condors have few natural predators. But a naturally low rate of reproduction, shootings, poisoning — particularly lead poisoning — and collisions with power lines have been major contributors to the bird’s near-extinction. 

As of January, there also were 33 California condors in the wild in southern and central California, another 12 in field pens in California and 102 in captive populations in Idaho and California. 

BEVERLY HILLS — Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, joined by Russell Simmons and other prominent hip-hop figures, called on rap artists to move away from explicitly violent lyrics. 

Farrakhan, who also condemned the U.S. war on terrorism, told a receptive, sometimes raucous audience Thursday that rappers owe poor and minority communities more than many of them have given. 

“From the suffering of our people came rap,” Farrakhan said. “That should make you a servant of those that produced you. That should make you a servant of the hood.” 

Children “can’t read Dick and Jane, but they can recite your raps,” he continued. “The question is, what are you feeding them?” 

More than 300 people, including rappers Boo-Yaa Tribe, Kurupt and DJ Quik, packed into a hotel conference room for his speech, and Simmons and others seconded the message. 

The Hip Hop Summit was organized by Simmons as an opportunity for rappers to reassess an industry that draws millions of fans worldwide but is widely blamed for violent and sexually explicit lyrics. It was one of a series of regional gatherings that are to lead up to a national meeting this summer. 

Simmons also advised the performers it may be time to step back from lyrics about sex and violence, especially when the raps are delivered by performers who didn’t emerge from gangs. 

“Truth sells — it always did,” Simmons said. “Integrity and honesty last forever.” 

At the same time, the founder of Def Jam Records acknowledged that his favorite recordings are those “that people have been most offended by.” 

Comedian and Los Angeles radio personality Steve Harvey told the group that radio stations, including the one he works for, are turning away from violent rap. 

“They’re making the conscious decision to play conscious music,” he said. 

Marion “Suge” Knight, who co-founded Death Row Records, called on rap artists to form a union to protect themselves from an ever-smaller number of large record companies and to secure pensions for artists after their popularity fades. 

Farrakhan also used his keynote speech to attack the Bush administration’s use of military force to fight terrorism, predicting that if the fighting spreads to other countries, “You will start a war that will engulf the whole planet — the war called Armageddon.” 

“I’m a patriot, I’m not an enemy of this nation,” Farrakhan said. “This is the greatest nation on Earth, but she won’t be if she stays on this course.” 

Benjamin Muhammad, president and chief executive officer of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, said he believes rap lyrics already are changing for the better. He added that artists also are stepping up their community involvement through charitable work and get-out-the-vote efforts. 

In a closed-door session during the afternoon, hip-hop artists expressed support for unionization, Muhammad said. He added that the topic probably will be more thoroughly examined at the national meeting. 

Artists at the summit also expressed unanimous support for Sarah Jones, a New York poet who is suing over a Federal Communications Commission fine levied against a Portland, Ore., radio station that played her song “Your Revolution.” 

The song contains vivid sexual imagery, but Jones intended it as a criticism of the degradation of women in hip-hop. 

AUSTIN, Texas — Former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay wrote repeatedly to George W. Bush throughout his governorship, seeking support for legislation benefiting the energy giant, according to documents released Friday. 

Many of the letters concerned utility deregulation and tort reform. Others were personal. Some 350 pages of correspondence were released by state archivists following requests from news organizations and others under the state’s open records law. 

“It’s old news,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan Friday. “The governor of Texas like any other governor receives thousands and thousands of letters from people across Texas who have diverse views on a variety of topics.” 

Although Bush signed a law deregulating the electricity market in 1999, the documents do not appear to show that Bush responded in print to Lay’s interest in the issue. 

Also, Bush had made clear during his first gubernatorial campaign that tort reform would be a top priority. He signed a sweeping bill into law in 1995. 

The two also exchanged birthday, holiday and get-well wishes. Much of the correspondence came from Lay, while a few letters originated from Bush’s desk. 

Bush wrote a note in 1997 wishing Lay a happy birthday: ”55 years old. Wow! That is really old. Thank goodness you have such a young, beautiful wife.” 

In his two Texas gubernatorial campaigns, Bush received $312,000 from Enron officials, including Lay, who was one of his biggest donors. 

In separate letters in 1996, Lay and former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling told Bush that Enron officials could arrange for him to tour Enron’s trading floor in Houston. 

“We would like to show you how we do business,” Skilling wrote. 

The following year, Lay wrote Bush about Enron’s negotiations for a $2 billion joint venture to develop Uzbekistan’s natural gas fields. According to the note, Bush was scheduled to meet with Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the United States just a few days later. 

“This project can bring significant economic opportunities to Texas, as well as Uzbekistan,” Lay wrote. 

Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry released correspondence between Enron executives and the governor’s office in response to another open records request. 

Those documents showed that as governor Bush appointed at least two officials recommended by Lay. The White House has said the appointments were made on merit, not on Lay’s recommendation. 

LOS ANGELES — Global Crossing chairman Gary Winnick controlled companies that had lucrative dealings with his fiber optics network firm before it imploded, regulatory filings show. 

The special relationships between the firms added an undisclosed amount to the personal profits of Winnick, who sold $734 million worth of stock before the company began bankruptcy proceedings on Jan. 28. 

The dealings involved Global Crossing paying millions of dollars to a privately held merchant bank and its subsidiaries founded and controlled by Winnick. 

The fees paid to Winnick through Pacific Capital Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries covered real estate leases, corporate aircraft fees and financial advice, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

In one deal made in October 1999, Global Crossing agreed to pay North Cresent Realty, a subsidiary of Pacific Capital, $400,000 a month to lease office space in Beverly Hills. Pacific Capital then subleased space back to North Cresent Realty for $53,000 a month. 

The agreement also involved Global Crossing paying North Cresent $3.2 million toward $7.5 million of renovations. 

Global Crossing is formally based in Bermuda, although Winnick and other top executives work out of Beverly Hills. The company is expected to announce soon that it will leave its Beverly Hills offices and relocate 60 employees to El Segundo and the San Fernando Valley. 

The company said an independent real estate consultant reviewed the complex transaction and determined it to be “the product of an arm’s length negotiation.” 

Mike Sitrick, a spokesman for Winnick, said Global Crossing got three independent valuations of the property and paid North Cresent the middle quote. In addition, Winnick excused himself from the negotiations, Sitrick said. 

Pacific Capital also billed Global Crossing $2 million during 1999 for using airplanes in which Pacific had a stake. Sitrick said the fee was less than Global Crossing would have paid an independent charter company. 

Global Crossing made another large payment to Winnick’s companies as part of a consulting contract drawn up in 1997, in which a unit of Pacific Capital advised Global Crossing’s wholly owned subsidiary, Atlantic Crossing Ltd., on a $482 million loan. 

Under terms of the deal, Pacific Capital’s PCG Telecom was to receive 2 percent of Atlantic Crossing’s gross revenue over a 25-year period. 

In June 1998, Global Crossing terminated the deal by agreeing to pay $135 million to Pacific Capital, several members of Global Crossing’s own board, including Winnick, and two financial partners: the CIBC and Union Labor Life Insurance Co. 

Since Global Crossing filed for bankruptcy protection, shareholders have accused the company of overstating revenue, and past and present employees have complained that they have lost the bulk of their retirement savings. 

Matt Fico was laid off by Global Crossing in November. The 27-year-old customer support manager said he lost about $20,000 in stock options and 401(k) retirement savings. 

He said knowledge of the multimillion-dollar deals between Global Crossing and some of its top executives has left him feeling “distrustful.” 

“These things might be legal, but they certainly don’t look ethical,” he said. 

In Washington, a spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating the collapse of Enron Corp., said the panel has begun looking into the Global Crossing affair. 

“It’s inevitable we’re going to do something” related to Global Crossing, said the spokesman, Ken Johnson. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-NY, has asked the Committee on Education and the Workforce to examine Global Crossing’s move preventing employees from accessing their 401(k) accounts during December and January. 

The retirement accounts were flush with company stock, which employees could not trade because Global Crossing was in the process of switching plan administrators. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Tundra died three years ago, but Susann Rivera never gave up hope that one day she would play with her furry friend again. 

Her heart soared Friday after she learned that Texas A&M University researchers had successfully cloned a little calico kitten named cc, short for copycat. 

“Tundra’s coming back,” said Rivera, the first cat customer of Genetic Savings & Clone, which charges people to store their pets’ DNA. 

The Burlingame woman — who has kept Tundra’s toys and Elvis Presley costume in anticipation of his resurrection — is on a long list of pet owners hoping cloning can bring back their beloved companions. 

Several biotechnology companies see a lucrative market in the frisky ball of fur that researchers unveiled Thursday. They say they’ve been inundated with calls since the feline hit the news. 

Hundreds of people have already paid as much as $1,000 each to freeze their pets’ DNA with hopes that cloning will someday become affordable and safe. The cloned kitty has buoyed those hopes while opening a giant can of worms. 

“I’m very worried that people are putting a piece of Fluffy in the fridge with the hope that cloning will restore it,” said Arthur Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist. “Cloning is an echo. It is not a copy. These companies border on deceiving people.” 

Even cc looks nothing like her surrogate, a calico cat named Rainbow. The genes are the same but cc’s markings differ substantially from Rainbow’s. That’s no surprise since other cloned animals have displayed similar differences. 

The kitten born in December looks different because the pigmentation pattern of the animal’s coat isn’t controlled strictly by the lineup of genes. 

“This is a reproduction,” said Texas A&M researcher Duane Kraemer “not a resurrection.” 

That’s a huge hurdle for the successful commercialization of cloned pets given that people like Rivera want their Tundra back. 

“The idea of cloning is a sham,” said Wayne Spacelle, a senior vice president with the U.S. Humane Society. “Their behavior and personality will be different. You may have a better match personality wise by going to a shelter and seeing an animal that exists, than by rolling the dice with cloning.” 

Genetic Savings chief executive Lou Hawthorne agrees. 

“Tundra ain’t coming back,” said Hawthorne, whose company funded the Texas A&M research and is putting the finishing touches on a new 7,000 square-foot cloning laboratory in College Station, Texas. 

And though Hawthorne says it is spending millions on research to produce as close to exact duplicates of cats, dogs, horses and cattle as possible, he concedes that today’s cloning technology is “crude”. 

“We can’t give you a guarantee that the personality will be the same,” he said. 

The kitty clone was the research team’s only success after transferring 87 cloned embryos into eight female cats. 

Overall, the success rate was comparable to that seen in other cloned species, the researchers said. 

Still, at least three other companies are racing to develop successful commercial pet cloning operations, including Cyagra of Worcester, Mass. Cyagra is a subsidiary of Advanced Cell Technology, the biotechnology firm that announced in November it had cloned a human embryo. 

Lazaron Biotechnologies of Baton Rouge, La., and Canine Cryobank of San Marcos are two other companies interested in pet cloning. 

Cyagra vice president Ron Gillepsie estimates that up to 10 million pet owners would be interested in cloning their animals for about $3,000 each. Hawthorne said his marketing studies show the same number of interested people, though he declined to talk about pricing. 

These companies have been collecting and storing pets’ DNA in deep freezes for prices ranging between $800 and $1,200 each. They all see a big market in people like Rob Fine of New York City. 

Fine’s beloved 11-year-old Rottweiler, Cali, died in January. 

“She was absolutely the most incredible animal I’ve ever known,” he said of the dog he raised from a pup. “She had so much personality. She was beautiful and smart. I was broken up when she died.” 

To help cope with his loss, Fine hedged his bet and paid two biotechnology companies about $800 each to store some of Cali’s cells and keep hope alive that someday, maybe, science could deliver him a clone — or something close to an exact duplicate. 

—— 

On the Net 

Genetic Savings: http://www.savingsandclone.com 

Humane Society: http://www.hsus.org 

Cyagra: http://www.cyagra.com 

SAN FRANCISCO — Shares of PayPal Inc. soared 55 percent in the online payment provider’s stock market debut Friday, signaling investors burned by the dot-com crash might be ready to take another chance on promising — but unprofitable — Internet companies. 

After the company’s investment bankers sold 5.4 million shares at $13 apiece in an initial public offering Thursday, PayPal’s stock closed at $20.09 Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The shares sold for as much as $22.44 during Friday’s session. 

At Friday’s price the company had a market value of $1.2 billion. The biggest individual winners Friday were PayPal’s co-founders, Elon Musk, 30, and Peter Thiel, 34. 

Musk, formerly PayPal’s CEO and now a director, held a stake worth $143 million as of Friday. Thiel, currently the company’s CEO, owned stork worth $56 million. 

Besides enriching PayPal insiders, Friday’s robust gain encouraged market observers who hope the rapidly growing company will rekindle investor interest in Internet startups. 

After feasting on dot-com stock during the late 1990s, Wall Street has largely avoided the Internet sector during the past 18 months. Investors have worked to recover from massive losses stemming from the high-tech bust. 

“It feels like 1999 all over again,” said James Van Dyke, an analyst with Jupiter Media Metrix. “PayPal could be like the torch bearer that kicks off the Olympics.” 

The Palo Alto-based company boasts an impressive track record for growth, swelling from 24 experimental users in October 1999 to 12.8 million customers as of Dec. 31. 

The service obtains payments from credit cards and bank accounts before sending them to a designated recipient through e-mail. PayPal generates revenue by charging transaction fees based on the amount transferred and is particularly popular at online auctions like eBay. 

PayPal’s strong IPO performance is bound to lure other privately held Internet companies into the stock market, predicted Kyle Huske of IPO.com. “The market just shook off all the risks associated with this one,” she said. 

Huske and other analysts had been worried that several legal and regulatory hurdles facing PayPal might scare off investors Friday. 

Just before PayPal was set to launch its IPO, New York-based CertCo Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit that threatens to shut down the service with a court order. 

PayPal, which is nearly 3 years old, also is embroiled in disputes with various state regulators who believe the company is illegally running an unlicensed bank. 

Regulators in Louisiana were poised to shut down PayPal’s service in that state until company officials negotiated more time to work out the licensing issues. New York regulators this month also reiterated their opinion that PayPal is breaking that state’s banking laws. The alleged violations could expose PayPal to huge fines. 

PayPal also acknowledged its activity is being scrutinized by bank regulators in other states. 

“If you try to balance all the positives and negatives with this company, it looks like there are more negatives right now,” said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com. 

PayPal also hasn’t made a dime yet. 

The company’s losses totaled $283 million through Dec. 31, including a 2001 loss of $107.8 million on revenue of $104.8 million. 

But with PayPal opening an average of 18,500 new accounts per day, investors are betting the company will eventually become profitable. If not for accounting charges absorbed to pay for past acquisitions and stock-based compensation, the company says it would have earned $3.2 million in the final quarter of last year. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.paypal.com 

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge has ordered California to get rid of its “hanging chad” voting machines by the 2004 elections, more than a year before the deadline the state had set. 

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson made the ruling late Tuesday — a week before a lawsuit filed in April against Secretary of State Bill Jones was set for trial. He ruled based on briefs filed by Jones and plaintiffs including the AFL-CIO and the advocacy group Common Cause. 

“California can look forward to a chad-free presidential election in the year 2004,” said Dan Tokaji, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped represent the plaintiffs. 

But the chief elections official for Los Angeles County called the decision “catastrophic,” saying that two years isn’t enough time to implement a more accurate system. 

“It’s going to throw the election system in LA County into chaos,” said Conny B. McCormack, the county’s registrar-recorder and county clerk. “The ultimate irony is that the outcome is going to be exactly the opposite of what the plaintiffs are seeking.” 

Tokaji said the ruling was the first requiring the replacement of voting systems by 2004 since the 2000 presidential election, when disputed punch-card ballots in Florida left the winner undeclared for weeks. 

Jones, who helped put on next month’s state ballot a $200 million bond for new election equipment, had ordered all Votomatic and Pollstar punch-card systems to be replaced by July 2005. The systems are used in nine of California’s 58 counties: Alameda, Los Angeles, Mendocino, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Clara, Shasta and Solano. 

Jones spokesman Alfie Charles said July 2005 is the earliest counties can buy equipment for touch-screen voting and get it running. 

“The date selected by the judge may prevent counties from obtaining the best equipment possible,” Charles said. 

But Tokaji said Jones isn’t requiring counties to switch to touch-screen balloting, and that other, quicker-to-implement options also would be better than punch-card ballots. “The priority here is to get rid of the worst offenders,” he said. 

Los Angeles County elections officials used touch-screen voting in a pilot project in November 2000, and want to expand its use in the November 2002 elections, McCormack said. 

But she added that the county is nowhere close to buying, testing and setting up the 30,000 touch-screen monitors it would need to rely on in an election. About 2.7 million people voted in the county in November, more than in each of 41 states, McCormack said. 

Using another paper-based system such as optical scanners as an interim measure could cause more error than punch-card balloting because voters won’t be used to them, McCormack said.  

She said the county, which must print ballots in 3,184 different local combinations and seven languages for primary elections next month, would be better off switching to a paperless system. 

“The plaintiffs are worried we’re going to be Florida, but we weren’t Florida, and we haven’t been for 34 years” — the length of time the county has relied on the punch-card voting system, McCormack said. 

She added that counties need to be alloted time to deal with problems that likely will arise during the switch. For instance, election officials in Broward County, Fla., this week said that more than two-thirds of their first shipment of 101 touch screen machines were defective. 

Switching to a touch-screen system would cost $90 million to $100 million for Los Angeles County alone, McCormack said. The state bond would cover some of the expense if voters approve it, and Congress is working on appropriating money for new elections equipment. 

PHILADELPHIA — Hundreds of youngsters in at least seven states have broken out in mysterious rashes, and some health investigators suspect it might be caused by a new or yet-to-be-identified virus. 

The red, itchy rash appears to be more an annoyance than a serious health threat, but it has managed to temporarily close schools, worry parents and frustrate school administrators, for whom answers have been elusive. 

Students in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Oregon and Washington state have complained about rashes on the face, arms, legs and body. For the most part, the rash goes away when the students leave school. 

“For something like this to occur almost simultaneously in different parts of the country is, to my knowledge, unprecedented,” said Dr. Norman Sykes, who examined about 30 suburban Philadelphia students who came down with the rash this month. 

In the Quakertown Community School District, where nearly 170 students at all nine schools were confirmed to have the rash, an environmental company collected air and water samples and examined carpets, floor mats, vacuum bags and clothing, but all tested negative for contaminants. 

“We may never know what this thing is,” said Quakertown Superintendent Jim Scanlon. 

Most school systems have ruled out an environmental cause, but not the Peninsula School District in Gig Harbor, Wash., where more than 50 students and teachers complained about a rash. 

Test results showed an abnormally high level of dust, dandruff and skin particles — probably caused by an overactive ventilation system that took too much moisture out of the air. 

“People are very concerned about their children,” said Peninsula Superintendent Jim Coolican, who does not suspect a virus. “We say it’s not a long-term problem, but people say, ‘How do you know? How do you know it won’t be a problem for my child 10 years from now?”’ 

Sykes, a dermatologist and professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, suspects the culprit in Quakertown is a mutation of the childhood illness known as fifth disease or a virus not yet known to science. 

Fifth disease, so-called because it was once considered one of the five main childhood illnesses, produces a low fever and cold-like symptoms, followed by a rash that creates a “slapped cheek” appearance and a lacy red rash on the trunk, arms and legs. 

Though Sykes’ patients had those same symptoms, a blood test turned up no evidence of the virus that causes the disease. Sykes then performed a more sophisticated test and found DNA evidence of fifth disease virus. But nine other students tested negative for fifth disease. 

“We only know a tiny, tiny percentage, certainly less than 10 percent, of the organisms that are in and on our bodies,” said infectious-disease expert Madeline Drexler, author of “Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections.” 

Dr. Suzanne Jenkins, of the Virginia Department of Health, also suspects a virus as yet unknown by science. The virus probably lives in the gastrointestinal tract, and can be spread by coughing, sneezing or failing to wash one’s hands after using the bathroom, the epidemiologist said. 

Scanlon, the Quakertown superintendent, believes some of the rashes might have been caused by psychosomatic “hysteria.” And some rashes were not rashes at all — high school students rubbed themselves with sandpaper in a futile attempt to get the school shut down, he said. 

“We sat there itching and then it got all red and bumpy and then it started stinging. I put a paper towel on it so it wouldn’t burn that much,” said 8-year-old Samantha Makl, who went to the hospital on the first day of the Quakertown outbreak. 

Quakertown parent Keith Ruppel said the rashes are distracting his two children from their school work. 

“I really wish they could find the cause,” said the father of a 10-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl. “But you can’t keep them out of school.” 

LOS ANGELES — Family and friends of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl mourned their loss Thursday, as news of his death reached the San Fernando Valley, where Pearl grew up and his parents still live. 

The State Department confirmed Thursday that Pearl, 38, was killed by the Pakistani kidnappers who abducted him Jan. 23. 

“Danny’s senseless murder is beyond our comprehension. Danny was a beloved son, a brother, an uncle, a husband and a father to a child who will never know him,” Pearl’s parents and two sisters said in a statement issued from their home in the Encino area of Los Angeles. 

Pearl grew up in the San Fernando Valley in northwest Los Angeles, graduating with honors in 1981 from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. 

Caprice Young, president of the Los Angeles Unified School Board, called the death of her former Birmingham classmate “terrible news.” 

“He was a really great guy, really smart,” said Young, 36. “I like to think Americans are safe when they go abroad. Obviously, he was not. It’s terrible news.” 

At the suburban high school, faculty, staff and students observed a moment of silence after they were told of Pearl’s death. The school also has established a memorial scholarship fund in his name that will go to a journalism student. 

“We as a faculty and students are really very saddened by this,” Principal Doris Lasiter said. “We’ve been watching these events on a regular basis.” 

Yearbook pictures of Pearl show a high achiever who was a national merit finalist and a participant in the school’s Knowledge Bowl academic competition. 

The front page of the student newspaper, The Stars & Stripes, carries photos of Pearl and the headline: “BHS Alumnus Defying Death.” 

Michael Saunders, 38, a classmate of Pearl’s from elementary school through high school, said many of Pearl’s peers looked up to him. 

“I just remember he was very much a leader and very sharp, but no one ever said anything bad about him,” said Saunders, who lives in Westlake Village and is a vice president of investments for UBS PaineWebber. “He was a popular, nice guy, but a little on the reserved side... He was brilliant as far as scholastics go.” 

Classmate Diane Hirshberg said Pearl was intellectually “a level beyond” other students throughout elementary and high school. 

“But he was definitely more of a well-rounded person, not someone you saw as being completely isolated and bookish,” said Hirshberg, now an education policy analyst who lives in Berkeley. “He was always extremely smart, very funny, and one of the nicest people we were growing up with.” 

Pearl graduated from Stanford University in 1985 with a degree in communications. He later worked in western Massachusetts before joining the Wall Street Journal in Atlanta in 1990. 

He later reported from Washington, London and Paris — where he wrote about the Middle East — before moving to Asia as the newspaper’s South Asia bureau chief. 

Pearl’s wife, Mariane, is seven months pregnant with the couple’s first child. 

OAKLAND — City of Oakland officials have decided to pay $195,000 to a man who spent 287 days in custody after he was arrested by a pair of officers who have been accused of criminal misconduct in a case against the so-called “Riders.” 

In November 1998, Clarence Mabanag and Matthew Hornung arrested Kenneth Davis and booked him for possession of crack cocaine, jaywalking and for being under the influence and unable to care for his safety. He was prosecuted by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and sentenced to spend 16 months in prison. 

While Davis was serving time, Mabanag and Hornung were caught in the middle of allegations of police corruption. Along with two other officers – Jude Siapno and Frank Vazquez – the pair involved with Davis were accused of beating suspects and falsifying evidence. They were known as “The Riders.” 

Mabanag, Siapno and Hornung have pleaded innocent to dozens of charges, while Frank Vazquez fled the country and remains at large. 

In the course of investigating the officers, the District Attorney’s Office conducted inquiries into hundreds of cases in which suspects were prosecuted based on police reports filed by the Riders officers. 

As a result of the review, the District Attorney requested that the court throw out more than 100 individual cases, including the case against Kenneth Davis. 

The Davis case was submitted to Alameda County Superior Court for dismissal on Jan. 20, 2001, and the court immediately released the defendant from prison. 

City Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Karen Boyd said approximately a dozen cases involving some 105 plaintiffs are pending in connection with the Riders. 

“We are looking at settling (those cases),’’ Boyd said today. “We’re evaluating them now.’’

The science of pot 

SANTA CRUZ — School officials are considering whether to yank a 13-year-old’s science project because it examines medical uses for marijuana. 

The junior high school student was allowed to present her “Mary Jane for Pain” project to classmates Thursday, but school officials later confiscated her props — including a marijuana-laced muffin and a spray bottle of pot-steeped rubbing alcohol. They returned the props to the girl’s father, Joe Morris, rather than call law enforcement. 

Morris said Mission Hill Junior High officials gave initial clearance for the project and should have said something earlier if they objected. 

“Don’t children have constitutional rights?” Morris said. “In a way, it’s censorship and that’s not acceptable.” 

Morris said his daughter became interested in the subject because her aunt is a caregiver for a woman who uses marijuana as a medicine. 

School officials haven’t yet decided if the girl can display her project next week at a prize competition. 

Running with his pants on fire 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A 30-year-old man left a trail of smoke as he fled from police with his pants on fire. 

Police said they spotted Carl Franklin with his pants down and his hands in front of him near a fence. They suspected he was going to relieve himself. 

When Tallahassee Police Officer Seth Stoughton shouted, Franklin ran. 

Apparently Franklin had been smoking and put the cigarette in his pocket, police said. 

Franklin ran until he lost his grasp and the pants dropped to his ankles. Stoughton said he tried to slap out the fire until another officer came and cut it away. 

Stoughton said Franklin smelled of alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated. 

He was charged with resisting arrest Sunday. 

Pot busted 

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — A man is facing a felony drug charge after his truck loaded with marijuana struck a police officer, authorities said. 

Scott Manciero, 29, was charged with delivery and manufacture of marijuana, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. He could also face other felony charges pending the outcome of the accident investigation. 

Officer Anthony Bateman, 26, was retrieving road flares late Saturday on a state road when he was struck by Manciero’s vehicle, Police Chief William Dwyer said. Manciero stopped after the crash, and officers found 14 pounds of marijuana in the truck, Dwyer said. 

Bateman was being treated for a chipped vertebrae and injuries to his shoulders, knees and head. 

A breath test showed Manciero was not intoxicated, police said. 

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GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — A man who becomes upset when he hears certain words was sentenced to six years in prison for shooting his girlfriend because he thought she was about to say “New Jersey.” 

Thomas Ray Mitchell, 54, was convicted earlier this month of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for shooting Barbara Jenkins outside his apartment in March 1999. He faced up to 20 years. 

Jenkins died recently but it was not connected to her injuries from the shooting. 

During the trial, his relatives testified that Mitchell gets angry, curses and bangs on walls when he hears certain words or phrases, including “New Jersey,” “Snickers,” “Mars” and “Wisconsin.” 

Mitchell flew into an expletive-laden rage during a pretrial conference when he saw the word “Snickers” printed on a card. 

His attorney argued that Mitchell suffered from a mental disorder. Psychiatrist Victor Scarano testified that Mitchell suffered from persecutory delusions. 

——— 

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Directions to Gucci in Japanese? Not a problem for Gregg Donovan. 

Nor is “Welcome to Beverly Hills” in dozens of other languages for the 42-year-old, who has been hired as the city’s first official greeter. 

“I’m waiting for the Dalai Lama to come to town so I can say it in Tibetan,” said Donovan, who greets shoppers along Rodeo Drive and adjacent streets. 

Clad in a red coachman coat from Sulka, Bally shoes, Versace sunglasses and sporting a Tiffany & Co. gold badge, Donovan looks the part. 

That’s the point, say officials with the city’s conference and visitors bureau, who hope Donovan will help lure back shoppers to some of the nation’s ritziest stores, ending an economic slump that hit after Sept. 11. 

Are you a Berkeley resident who has devised some very creative ways to reduce your electricity consumption? Do you typically spend less than $10.00 on electricity each month? If so, you may qualify to enter the City of Berkeley’s new energy conservation contest, "Berkeley Unplugged". 

There are several categories from which Berkeley residents may win. Judges are looking for Berkeley residents who have reduced their energy consumption by at least 40% from last January, or who consume less than 3.8 kilowatt hours per day, or who have devised successful energy conservation strategies, from using power strips for turning off remote-controlled appliances such as TVs and VCRs, to installing solar panels or windmills. 

Ten of the selected contestants will receive Certificates of Achievement from the City of Berkeley. Each will also receive a $75.00 Gift Certificate for energy-conserving products from the Berkeley Conservation & Energy Program (BC&E), including compact fluorescent lamps, pipe insulation, torchiere lamps, programmable thermostats and weather stripping. BC&E products are available at wholesale prices from a variety of locations, including all Berkeley Farmer’s Markets, the Ecology Center on San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley Bowl, Whole Foods Market, Mi Tierra Foods and Mi Ranchito Bayside Market on San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley Natural Grocery on Gilman St., the Sierra Club Bookstore, Truitt & White Lumber Company, and Bolfing’s Elmwood Hardware on College Ave. These retailers have agreed to supply BC&E products at below-retail prices to help people save both money and energy. 

To enter the contest, have your energy bill for the month of January and go to www.ecologycenter.org/BerkeleyUnplugged and use the online form. The contest ends March 20th, and prizes will be awarded at Berkeley’s Earth Day celebration on April 20th. 

Many people saw this as the catalyst needed for developing renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and geothermal energy. President Carter installed solar hot water panels on the White House roof, and the fledgling renewable-energy movement began in earnest.  

SAN FRANCISCO — John W. Gardner, a trailblazing advocate of democratic participation and volunteerism who became known as “the father of campaign finance reform,” died Saturday. He was 89. 

Gardner helped launch Medicare, founded Common Cause, led the Carnegie Corporation and kept engaged in the nation’s intellectual life until he was bedridden in January from complications with prostate cancer was first diagnosed two years ago. 

He died about 3:30 p.m. at his home on Stanford University’s campus, according to his daughter, Francesca Gardner.Gardner was secretary of health, education and welfare at the height of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the cabinet’s token Republican. It was a post he occupied from Medicare’s first year in 1965 until he resigned in 1968 after concluding Johnson should not run again. 

“We are going to build a true ’citizens’ lobby — a lobby concerned not with the advancement of special interests but with the well-being of the nation,” Gardner said in 1970 as he introduced a group that quickly became a player in national politics. 

Gardner was secretary of health, education and welfare at the height of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the cabinet’s token Republican. It was a post he occupied from Medicare’s first year in 1965 until he resigned in 1968 after concluding Johnson should not run again. 

Gardner said that in his youth he preferred reflection to action. But World War II — he served as a Marine officer in Europe — jolted him into a more activist role. Gardner is survived by his wife of 67 years, Aida; two daughters, Stephanie Gardner Trimble and Francesca Gardner and his brother, Louis. 

Question: 

I moved out of my apartment last month after living there almost three years. My roommate – who also signed the lease – stayed and found someone to replace me. Although the landlord has approved of my replacement, he refuses to take my name off the lease and put the new person on. Am I still responsible for rent if the new person fails to pay? Doesn’t the landlord have to put the new person’s name on the lease? 

Answer: 

If the lease you refer to is the one you signed three years ago, and assuming it is for the typical one-year term, it has converted to a month-to-month rental agreement. This means once you give your landlord 30 days’ notice that you’re moving, you are free from your obligation to pay rent when the 30 days are up, even if you are still named on the original lease. If the landlord accepts rent directly from the new person, she has gained all rights and assumed all obligations under the rental agreement, even if she is not acknowledged as a tenant in an amendment to the agreement. 

However, if you signed annual leases each year, then you remain liable (with your roommate) for rent payments until the lease ends. By approving a replacement, your landlord has agreed to either a sublease or an assignment of the lease. Under a sublease, your replacement is a subtenant who pays her share of rent to you or your roommate; but you remain responsible for paying the full rent to the landlord, even if the subtenant doesn’t pay you. Under an assignment, you have given the new person all your rights to live in the apartment for the rest of the lease term. Your replacement will pay rent directly to the landlord, but unless the landlord releases you in writing (which effectively takes you off the lease), you are still liable for rent if she defaults.  

Question: 

I’ve been paying rent to my landlord by check since I began renting from her two years ago. Yesterday my landlord called to tell me that she wants me to start paying rent with a cashier’s check, even though I’ve never bounced a check. She says she has had problems with other tenants’ checks so she wants everyone to pay the same way. Can she require this of me? 

Answer: 

It depends. In Berkeley, a landlord cannot make a substantial change in the terms of a lease or rental agreement, so if your agreement allows for rent to be paid by personal check, the landlord cannot change that provision. But if your agreement requires payment by cashier’s check, the landlord may be able to enforce the original terms of the agreement. 

You can e-mail the City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board at rent@ci. berkeley.ca.us with your questions, or you can call or visit the office at 2125 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA. 94704.